DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 


Rec,d_^2^-t^  3,  / f 3 6 


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V 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
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https://archive.org/details/marthaschofieldpOOevan 


Copyright,  1916. 

By  Matilda  A.  Evans,  M.  D. 


*•  r 


DuPre  Printing  Company,  Columbia.  S.  C 


leMraiorg 

To  the  men  and  women  who 
braved  the  dangers  and  suffered  the 
hardships  of  frontier  life  and  bore 
with  fortitude  the  pain  of  social  os- 
tracism and  the  sting  of  poison  slan- 
der that  through  their  work  a lowly 
race  might  be  educated,  this  work  is 
respectfully  dedicated  by 

The  Author. 

y 


154853 


FOREWORD 


One  of  tlie  benefits  conferred  by  education  is  that  of 
enlightening  the  mind  '•on  the  subject  of  one’s  duty. 
Finding  what  is  duty  the  manner  of  discharging  it  will 
suggest  itself  to  the  alert,  the  active,  and  those  of  indus- 
trious and  intelligent  discernment.  Perhaps  forever 
hidden  would  remain  the  necessity  for  certain  tasks 
were  it  not  for  the  inspiration  idealists  receive  from  ed- 
ucation. This  education,  if  proper  and  well  rounded, 
also  forces  all  who  embrace  it  into  the  line  of  work 
promising  the  accomplishment  of  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments— ^achievements  such  as  in  leaving  foot-prints  on 
the  sands  of  time  leave  no  mark  of  dishonor  but  such  as 
really  and  truly  do  give  new  heart  and  new  hope  and 
new  courage  to  the  weaker  brother. 

That  Martha  Schofield  was  inspired  by  the  highest  mo- 
tives that  possibly  could  influence  any  one  in  choosing 
an  occupation  to  be  made  a life-work  is  evidenced  by  * 
the  personal  sacrifices  she  made  in  order  to  engage  in 
it.  The  fortitude  with  which  she  bore  the  poison  sting 
of  slander,  the  cruel  whip  of  character  assassination  and 
braved  the  threats  of  personal  violence  forcibly  attests 
the  sincerity  actuating  her  in  pursuing  her  chosen  work. 
The  results  accomplished  by  the  fifty  years  of  earnest 
endeavor  by  her  form  a tribute  to  efficiency  of  women 
in  administrative  affairs  that  is  seldom  ever  equaled 
by  other  human  beings  claiming  greater  strength  by 
reason  of  sex.  When  the  final  history  of  the  war  be- 
tween ignorance  and  enlightenment,  between  supersti- 
tion and  science,  between  vice  and  virtue  shall  have  been 
written  of  the  colored  race  the  foremost  name  among  all 
will  be — Martha  Schofield — Pioneer  Negro  Educator. 

Matilda  A.  Evans,  M.  D., 

i Columbia,  S.  C. 


Martha  Schofield 

!y/  3/ 3 £> 

- A,-  • , . jT 

•zjf 

y&c:r  " , , CHAPTER  I. 

6>&'  . e v . A 

The  Hunted  Beast. 

A woman  apparently  thirty  years  of  age,  of  mulatto 
skin,  fell  limp  into  a chair  in  the  kitchen  of  Mrs.  Oliver 
Schofield  of  Darby,  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania  about 
the  year  1857,  with  blood  hounds  and  the  voices  of  angry 
men  following  close  upon  her  heels  through  the  tangled 
swamps  from  which  she  had  just  emerged. 

“Who  can  thee  be?  Who  can  thee  be? — and  what 
does  thee  want  here?”  inquired  excited  Mrs.  Schofield 
as  she  dropped  the  dish  rag  and  rushed  to  the  prostrate 
form  in  the  chair,  eager  to  render  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
suffering  and  afflicted  woman  as  well  as  to  ascertain  the 
cause  of  her  abrupt,  unannounced  entrance  into  her 
home. 

Out  of  breath  from  the  long  run  made  necessary  to 
escape  the  dogs  and  the  traps  laid  by  experienced  officers 
of  the  law  who  had  been  so  diligently  upon  her  trail  for 
more  than  a week,  that  she  had  had  time  to  stop  and  rest 
and  take  nourishment  for  only  a few  minutes  at  a time, 
Laura  Duncan  was  unable  at  first  to  give  any  coherent 
account  of  herself.  She  managed,  however,  to  make  it 
known  to  the  kind  Quaker  lady  that  she  was  an  escaped 
slave  and  was  endeavoring  with  all  speed  possible  to 
reach  the  Canadian  border  and  enter  the  world  of  free- 
dom, which  she  had  been  informed  existed  under  the 
British  flag  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  for  all  who 
might  enter  that  country. 

As  causes  moving  her  to  take  this  drastic  step  in  defi- 
auce  of  the  law  of  her  own  land  and  the  possibility  of 
involving  the  liberty  and  happiness  of  all  who  might  be 
kind  enough  to  assist  her  in  the  accomplishment  of  the 
task,  she  recited  such  evils  as  brought  tears  to  the  eyes 
of  her  enforced  host.  She  exhibited  a lash-scared  back, 


6 


Martha  Schofield. 


a broken  bone  or  two  and  a deep  cut  on  the  head  that 
had  since  been  healed  without  serious  results  only  by  the 
aid  of  a skillful  surgeon. 

But  the  physical  suffering  attested  by  these  outward 
signs  of  the  practice  of  brutality  on  the  woman  were  but 
a fraction  of  the  pain  and  torture  which  Miss  Schofield 
knew  was  gnashing  at  her  heart  over  the  parting  of  her- 
self and  husband  and  children  more  than  a month  be- 
fore, when  at  a public  sale  little  Gabe,  her  ten  year  old 
son,  and  Jennie,  the  only  daughter,  and  her  husband, 
“Jim,”  were  each  sold  to  different  masters  in  as  many 
different  States  and  carried  away  where  she  would  never 
see  or  hear  of  any  of  them  again. 

“Martha”  said  Mrs.  Schofield  addressing  her  daugh- 
ter, whose  face  was  covered  in  an  immaculate  white 
apron  that  adorned  her  whole  front,  to  hide  the  freely 
flowing  tears  that  rushed  from  her  eyes  like  water  from 
the  fountains,  “do  thee  find  thy  father  at  once  and  tell 
him  to  come  to  the  house  as  quickly  as  possible.” 

Then  laying  her  arms  around  the  body  of  the  incon- 
solable wife  and  mother  she  spoke  words  of  consolation 
and  cheer,  assuring  her  that  God  in  his  own  way  and 
wisdom  would  destroy  the  power  of  the  government  of 
human  beings  by  the  lash,  would  break  the  chains  that 
bind  the  hand  and  foot  and  visit  a just  retribution  on 
all  those  responsible  for  the  sale  of  babies  from  the 
breasts  of  mothers.  She  begged  and  pleaded  earnestly 
that  Laura  abandon  the  attempt  to  escape  and  entreated 
her  to  surrender  to  the  officers  and  return  to  her  master, 
but  the  slave,  chafing  under  the  influence  of  a life  of  in- 
justice and  brutality,  expressed  a firmer  determination 
than  ever  before,  to  continue  on  in  her  course  and  begged 
pitiably  of  her  host  that  her  presence  in  the  home  be  not 
divulged.  She  threatened  suicide  if  captured. 

Mr.  Schofield,  himself,  by  this  time  had  reached  the 
house  and  instantly  grasping  the  situation,  requested  of 
Mrs.  Schofield  a familiar  old  shawl  and  bonnet  of  hers. 
Dressed  in  these  Laura,  in  company  with  Mr.  Schofield, 
passed  readily  as  Mary,  his  wife,  among  acquaint- 
ances of  the  latter,  and  successfully  eluded  all  pursuit 


The  Hunted  Beast. 


7 


by  the  officers,  who  a half  hour  after  her  departure  had 
ransacked  the  Schofield  home  from  turret  to  founda- 
tion stone  in  search  of  the  fleeing  fugitive. 

Reaching  a zone  safely  out  of  reach  of  harm’s  way,  the 
leader  of  the  church  of  the  Society  Friends,  deposited 
his  burden,  wishing  her  God-speed  in  her  undertaking 
and  placing  in  her  hand  one  dollar  in  gold  to  assist  her 
on  her  journey,  turned  his  horse,  after  many  days  on  the 
road,  and  made  his  way  slowly  back  home,  with  a pain- 
ful heart. 

During  the  interval  of  her  husband’s  departure  and 
return,  Mrs.  Schofield  was  kept  busy  in  the  attempt  to 
control  the  indignant  and  outraged  feelings  of  Martha, 
who  had  gone  to  her  mother  dozens  of  times  with  the 
question  of  the  justice  and  mercy  of  God  and  the  wisdom 
and  power  of  the  government  in  permitting  the  fetter- 
ing of  four  million  bodies  in  chains  and  the  trampling 
under  foot  by  brutal  might  of  all  the  sacred  relations  of 
wife,  father  and  child. 

“Ah,  my  daughter,  ’tis  not  for  thee  to  question  the 
mysterious  workings  of  God,”  she  would  reply,  “in  the 
Master’s  own  time  and  way  He  will  touch  the  auction 
block,  the  slave  pen  and  the  whipping  post,  and  in  their 
place  thee  shall  see  what  thy  dear  heart  desires  so  much 
to  see — happy  homes  and  firesides,  and  school  houses 
and  books,  where  today  thee  only  sees  crime  and  cruelty 
and  fear.” 

“But  mother,”  Martha  would  protest,  “for  how  much 
longer  must  the  poor  ignorant  slaves  endure  the  infinite 
outrages  heaped  upon  them  by  reason  of  the  barbarism  of 
the  slave-holding  oligarchy?  Have  they  not  suffered 
enough  already?  Is  it  not  time  to  close  the  door  on  the 
slave-holding  class  and  render  judgment  as  swift  and  im- 
placable as  death  ? Their  cause  was  brought  forth  in  ini- 
quity and  consummated  in  crime,  and  I for  one  believe 
God  would  only  be  served  by  our  societies  ( the  Society  of 
Friends  and  the  Abolitionist  Society)  hastening  on  the 
envitable  civil  conflict,  believed  by  most  people  as  abso- 
lutely necessary  in  the  settlement  of  the  whole  question 
of  slavery.” 


Martha  Schofield. 


8 * 

“My  daughter,  oh,  my  daughter,  pray  thee  do  not  talk 
that  way”  said  her  mother  in  tones  of  profound  anxiety ; 
“does  not  the  good  book  command  thee  not  to  kill? 
Eternal  torment  for  thy  portion  if  thou  should  commit 
murder,  and  to  wish  it  to  be  done  is  father  to  the  deed. 
Oh,  my  daughter!  my  daughter!  thee  frightens  me!” 

“Oh,  no  my  mother,  there’s  no  murder  in  my  heart, 
I assure  thee,”  said  Martha;  “I  only  desire  the  govern- 
ment’s protection  for  every  human  being  subject  to  its 
authority  and  I want  that  same  authority  to  turn  every 
auction  block  and  slave  pen  into  a school  house  even  if 
its  necessary  to  exact  by  bullet  every  drop  of  blood  that 
has  been  spilled  by  the  lash,  in  accomplishing  this  re- 
sult. Thee  must  concede  that  the  Bible  also  teaches  us 
to  exact  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a tooth  for  a tooth.  But 
I wish  this  to  be  done,  Mother,  only  to  make  possible  a 
happier  and  blesseder  existence  here  on  this  earth  for 
a lowly  race,  when  all  other  means  of  accomplishing  so 
dsirable  an  end  have  been  tried  and  proven  in  vain.” 


CHAPTER  II. 

Revolution  and  War. 

During  the  ten  years  intervening  between  the  precip- 
itate appearance  of  the  runaway  slave  at  the  Schofield 
home  and  the  coming  to  Edisto  Island,  South  Carolina, 
of  Miss  Martha  Schofield  for  the  purpose  of  founding 
an  industrial  school  for  the  colored  race,  the  new  form 
of  liberty  conceived  by  our  fore-fathers  and  dedicated 
to  the  principle  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal, 
had  been  put  to  a severe  test  as  to  whether  this  new 
form  of  government  could  be  put  into  practice.  The 
great  Civil  War  predicted  by  Martha  as  inevitable  in 
the  settlement  of  the  problem  of  slavery  broke  out  in  all 
its  fury  in  1860-61  and  was  not  only  attended  by  the  loss 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  priceless  lives,  whose  bodies 
filled  countless  hospitals  of  pain,  and  made  gory  the 
prairies  and  furrows  of  old  fields,  as  they  on  the  side  of 
the  South  as  well  as  they  on  the  side  of  the  North  bled 
and  died  for  the  eternal  right  as  each  saw  what  was 
their  duty;  but  the  demoralization  precipitated  by  this 
gigantic  conflict,  followed  by  the  assassination  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  the  idol  of  the  whole  free-civilized  world, 
was  even  more  staggering  in  its  influence  on  the  lives 
and  fortunes  of  those  left  to  solve  the  problems  created 
by  the  great  revolution. 

The  waste  of  inconceivable  sums  of  money  through 
the  awarding  of  contracts  involving  millions  and  mil- 
lions of  dollars  by  which  fortunes,  through  little  or  no 
effort  at  all,  were  made  in  a single  night  was  openly 
countenanced  at  Washington. 

Superfluous  wealth  chocked  the  nation  at  the  North 
with  its  mighty  grip  and  the  riot  of  speculation,  corrup- 
tion and  debauchery  which  followed,  in  the  voting  away 
of  the  public  lands  free  of  any  charge  to  private  corpora- 
tions and  the  granting  of  subsidies  of  millions  of  dollars 
without  any  compensation  whatever,  laid  such  burdens 
upon  the  people  that  many  of  them  until  this  day  (1916) 
remain  undischarged.  , 

The  paralysis  experienced  by  the  business  interests  as 


10 


Martha  Schofield. 


a result  of  this  whirlwind  of  corruption  resulted  in  the 
decline  of  the  credit  of  the  country  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  six  per  cent,  bonds  of  the  Republic  dropped  to 
about  seventy-three  cents  on  the  dollar  in  the  open 
market.  But  the  disastrous  financial  calamity  which 
the  war  produced  is  of  no  consequence  in  comparison 
with  the  moral  degredation  into  which  the  country  sank. 

A few  years  before  the  panic  of  1873  nearly  everybody 
in  the  North  and  West,  where  conditions  were  prosper- 
ous in  spite  of  the  war,  wanted  to  go  to  the  cities  where 
fortunes  were  waiting  for  them,  and  almost  every 
farmer’s  son  took  an  oath  that  he  would  never  cultivate 
the  soil.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  they  left  the  dreary 
and  desolate  farms  in  droves  and  rushed  to  the  cities  to 
become  bookkeepers,  doctors,  lawyers,  merchants  and 
sewing  machine  agents,  anything  to  escape  the  heavy 
work  of  the  farm.  Those  with  capital  wanted  to  engage 
in  something  promising  huge  and  quick  returns  and  so 
these  built  railroads,  established  banks  and  insurance 
companies.  Some  speculated  in  stocks  of  Wall  Street, 
while  others  gambled  in  grain  in  Chicago  with  the  result 
that  the  riches  of  tlie  whole  country  flowed  to  their  coff- 
ers in  immense  volumne,  and  in  their  carriages  and  pal- 
aces they  pitted  their  poor  brothers  ou  the  farm,  who  as 
earnestly  envied  them. 

But  the  lap  of  luxury  in  which  these  citizens  were  be- 
ing nursed  was  doomed  to  become  thread-bare  as,  indeed, 
it  did  do,  and  always  will  do,  when  the  world’s  advance 
is  checked  by  the  want  of  assistance  and  co-operation  of 
all  classes  of  laborers.  The  railroad  and  insurance 
presidents  became  bankrupts  aud  their  companies  went 
into  the  hands  of  receivers  by  the  score.  Large  numbers 
of  young  men  who  imagined  they  had  entirely  too  much 
education  to  be  wasted  on  the  farm  and  flocked  to  the 
cities  in  incredible  numbers  became  in  time,  either  ab- 
sconders and  fugitives  from  justice,  or  plain  tramps  and 
hobos,  a demonstrative  force  to  prove  the  saying,  that 
the  only  really  solvent  people,  the  only  independent  peo- 
ple, are  the  tillers  of  the  soil. 

At  the  South  which  had  been  reduced  to  the  most 


Revolution  and  War. 


11 


degraded  type  of  poverty  there  were  no  such  opportuni- 
ties  for  the  accumulation  of  wealth  as  existed  at  the 
North  and  in  the  West.  _ The  few  railroads  that  before 
the  war  intersected  this  section  had  been  torn  up  by  tho 
necessities  of  war  and  needed  rebuilding,  but  there  was 
no  money  to  be  had  anywhere  with  which  to  do  the  work. 
All  the  strongest  blood  and  brain  had  been  either  slain 
in  battle  or  rendered  incapacitated  for  the  tasks  which 
the  new  order  of  conditions  had  forced  upon  the  country. 
Aside  from  the  loss  of  millions  and  millions  of  dollars 
as  a result  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  freeing 
the  slaves  the  South  was  forced  also  to  bear  the  burden 
of  an  exorbitant  tax  on  all  crops  produced,  especially 
the  cotton  tax. 

The  agitation  set. up  by  many  of  the  acts  of  Recon- 
struction, impeachment  proceedings  against  President 
Johnson  and  the  foment  and  strife  engendered  by  the 
rule  of  the  military  authorities  opposed  by  the  Ku  Klux 
Klan,  all  served,  to  keep  for  years  longer  than  necessary, 
the  bleeding  and  prostrate  South  securely  on  its  back, 
a helpless  beggar  at  the  mercy,  |n  many  instances  of  an 
army  of  unscrupulous  and  grafting  office-seekers.  Under 
such  conditions  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  credit  any- 
where for  the  most  necessary  things  of  life  and  as  there 
was  almost  nothing  of  any  value  produced,  the  greatest 
hardships  and  suffering,  if  not  actual  misery,  was  en- 
dured by  the  people  of  the  South. 

Scores  of  persons  gave  up  in  despair  and  died.  Cow 
peas,  corn  bread  and  molasses  of  such  quality  as  only 
a few  years  before  would  have  been  considered  unfit  food 
for  the  slaves  formed  the  sole  diet,  for  the  first  few  years 
after  the  war,  of  delicate  and  cultured  women.  Little 
children  often  went  to  bed  crying  from  hunger.  An  ele- 
ment of  the  Negro  population,  rendered  conspicuously 
brutal  and  vicious  by  service  in  the  army,  stole  and 
threatened  even  blacker  crimes,  just  as  the  game  of  war 
has  affected  the  morality  of  all  races  of  men  throughout 
the  history  of  recorded  warfare. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Pioneer  Educator  Arrives. 

Into  the  midst  of  these  terrible  times  which  made 
weak  the  souls  and  hearts  of  the  strongest  of  men,  came 
Miss  Martha  Schofield,  the  first  of  the  pioneers  to  push 
into  the  distracted  South  to  labor,  to  suffer,  and  if  need 
be,  to  die  for  the  millions  of  ignorant.,  irresponsible  Ne- 
groes. Their  education,  along  industrial  lines,  she  made 
her  life-work — crowning  it  on  the  TTtli  day  of  her  birth, 
February  1,  1916,  by  passing  from  earth  to  heaven.  But 
she  left  to  show  that  she  did  something  on  earth  a school 
and  campus  comprising  an  area  of  two  entire  blocks  in 
the  beautiful  City  of  Aiken,  S.  C.,  on  which  she  had 
erected  eight  buildings. 

The  school  farm,  adequate  for  all  farm  demonstration 
work,  consists  of  about  400  acres.  The  funds  by  which 
all  this  valuable  property  was  acquired  was  raised  by 
Miss  Schofield  herself,  through  the  fluent  use  of  her 
trenchent  pen,  which  she  knew  how  to  wield  as  few 
women  have  ever  learned  to  do.  Everything  contracted 
for  in  the  interest  of  the  school  was  paid  for  in  cash  as 
Miss  Schofield,  in  all  her  fifty  years  of  administration, 
never  contracted  the  outlay  of  money  without  first  hav- 
ing provided  the  means  with  which  to  meet  claims.  She 
enjoyed  the  good-will  and  friendship  of  men  and  women 
of  wealth  and  influence  throughout  the  country,  espec- 
ially of  the  old  Abolitionists,  who  supported  her  insti- 
tution generously  as  long  as  they  lived  and  possessed 
the  means  with  which  to  do  so. 

The  Schofield  School  at  Aiken  has  .sent  out  into  the 
world  many  young  men  and  women  who  have  gone  back 
among  their  own  people  accomplished  teachers,  minis- 
ters, physicians,  farmers  and  artisans,  leading  the  col- 
ored race  of  the  South  to  the  highest  appreciation  of 
what  Martha  Schofield’s  motto  for  life  was — “Thorough- 
ness,” thoroughness  not  only  in  books  and  f lie  industrial 
arts,  but  in  thought  and  action  as  well.  No  doubt  the 
success  which  attended  the  efforts  of  the  graduates  of 


Pioneer  Educator  Arrives. 


13 


this  School  is  due,  in  the  main,  to  the  strict  regard  for 
efficiency  with  which  this  great  woman  inspired  every 
student  coming  under  her  influence. 

When  we  contemplate  the  wide-spread  influence 
which  the  life  and  work  of  Martha  Schofield  has  exerted 
on  the  education  of  the  people  of  the  South,  the  white 
as  well  as  the  colored,  words  become  inadequate  to  pay 
proper  tribute  to  her;  to  justly  express  the  appreciation 
felt  by  those  having  knowledge  of  her  achievements. 

There  is  not  a colored  school  in  the  entire  South  that 
has  not  acknowledged  the  wisdom  of  this  Divinely  en- 
dowed leader  and  instructor  by  establishing  an  indus- 
trial department.  Eecognizing  the  imperative  import- 
ance of  this  sort  of  instruction  almost  all  the  schools 
and  colleges  for  whites  emphasize  it  by  giving  it  first 
place  in  their  curriculums.  Clemson,  for  white  men 
and  Eock  Hill  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute  for 
young  white  women  were  established  long  after  Miss 
Schofield  brought  home  to  the  people  of  the  South  the 
crying  necessity  of  preparing  our  boys  and  girls  of  all 
races  for  the  actual  duties  met  with  in  every  day  home 
life.  The  vision  which  she  herself  had  of  a thorough 
preparation  for  the  humbler  tasks  lighted  the  intellect- 
ual skies  of  the  whole  South  after  years  of- success  by 
her  in  the  education  of  the  weaker  race.  This  fact  is 
made  more  prominent  by  the  action  of  many  of  the 
States  in  incorporating  industrial  courses  in  the  com- 
mon schools. 

Much  credit  must  be  given  to  the  practical  success  of 
Miss  Schofield’s  school  work  for  the  marvelous  strides 
made  by  the  education  of  the  Negro  at  such  celebrated 
institutions  as  Hampton,  Va.,  with  an  enrollment  annu- 
ally of  over  1,500  students  and  an  endowment  of  over 
$1,000,000.00;  and  at  Tuskeegee,  with  about  an  equal 
number  of  students  and  as  great  or  greater  endowment 
fund.  Then  there  are  other  great  institutions  devoted 
entirely  to  the  education  of  the  colored  race,  making 
quite  a feature  of  the  industrial  department,  such  as 
Atlanta  University,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  Fisk  University, 


14 


Martha  Schofield. 


Nashville,  Term.,  Haines  Institute,  Augusta,  Ga.,  Spell- 
man University,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  Claflin  and  the  Agricul- 
tural Colored  State  College  at  Orangeburg,  S.  C.  Also 
Benedict  at  Columbia  and  Voorhees  Institute  at  Den- 
mark, all  of  which  have  grown  into  existence  and  at- 
tained the  top-most  rung  of  the  ladder  of  fame  since  the 
coming  to  the  South  of  Martha  Schofield  in  1865. 

Near  the  Schofield  School  is  the  Bettis  Academy  in 
Edgefield  County,  South  Carolina,  formed  and  modeled 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Aiken  School.  Alford  Nichol- 
son, the  principal,  is  a product  of  the  latter  and  is  work- 
ing out  with  great  similarity  the  ideas  and  theories  of 
his  Alma  Mater.  The  good  being  accomplished  here  in 
a small  way  is  one  of  the  great  triumphs  of  the  life- 
work  of  Miss  Schofield,  it  being  her  greatest  aim  in  life 
not  to  create  and  endow  great  institutions  of  learning 
with  money  and  high  sounding  names,  but  to  plant  in 
the  heart  and  soul  of  every  child  coming  under  her  in- 
fluence those  principles  of  efficiency  that  would  enable 
them  to  get  out  into  the  world  and  actually  do  some- 
thing to  lift  up  the  fallen.  She  acted  always  as  if  the 
taking  of  the  name  of  the  Lord  in  vain  consisted  entire- 
ly of  praying  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  to  come  but  doing 
absolutely  nothing  to  bring  those  prayers  to  pass. 
“Deeds,  deeds,  my  children,”  she  was  fond  of  saying, 
“are  what  count,  not  mere  words.” 

The  absence  of  faith  in  God,  she  asserted,  was  seen 
in  all  those  who  did  not  turn  their  hand  to  accomplish 
the  results  for  which  they  prayed.  No  one  can  success- 
fully accuse  her  of  hypocracy  in  the  least.  She  prac- 
ticed what  she  taught  and  taught  others  that  anything 
less  than  that  was  hypocracy  and  infidelism. 

Miss  Martha  Schofield  was  born  near  Newton,  in 
Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  first  day  of  Febru- 
ary in  the  year  1839  of  well-to-do  parents,  who  pro- 
fessed and  lived  true  the  principles  of  religion  as  enun- 
ciated by  the  Society  of  Friends,  or  the  Quakers,  as  they 
are  commonly  called.  This  stern  sect  of  religious  pur- 
itans date  their  arrival  in  America  along  with  the  ear- 


Pioneer  Educator  Arrives. 


15 


liest  immigrants,  and  in  proportion  to  numbers  can  lay 
as  heavy  claim  to  being  responsible  for  the  civilization 
of  the  present  day  as  any  other  denomination  inhabit- 
ing the  New  World.  The  same  cause,  religious  perse- 
cution, leading  other  denominations  to  seek  a home  on 
American  shores,  where  they  could  worship  God  in 
their  own  way,  inspired  the  Friends  to  come  to  this 
country.  William  Penn,  a very  wealthy  and  highly  ed- 
ucated man,  famous  the  civilized  world  over  for  his 
kindness  of  heart  and  generous  benevolences,  was  a 
member  of  the  Society  and  one  of  its  chief  supporters 
in  England  and  America.  He  founded  the  City  of  Phil- 
adelphia, which  means  brotherly  love.  The  foundation 
stone  of  the  whole  structure  of  the  Quaker  religion  is 
carved  out  of  the  rock  of  brotherly  love,  and  it  was  this 
love  that  placed  Ben  Abon  Ahem  on  the  highest  seat 
in  the  house  of  the  Hall  of  Saints  when  the  wandering 
Angel  of  the  earth  went  to  Heaven  to  pick  out  the  Arch- 
angel within  the  pearly  gates. 

The  love  which  Martha  Schofield  bore  for  all  man- 
kind, white  and  black,  Jew  and  Greek,  male  and  female, 
friend  and  foe,  was  evidently  inspired  by  a religious 
conviction  that  held  her  thrall. 

Not  since  Christ  has  there  been  a man  or  woman  of 
whom  it  can  be  truly  said  he  or  she  could  not  possibly, 
wilfully  sin,  but  it  is  believed  confidently  by  all  who 
knew  Miss  Schofield  best  that  she  would  not  under  any 
circumstances  knowingly  commit  sin.  It  was  as  natural 
for  her  to  be  virtuous  and  righteous  as  it  is  natural  for 
the  vicious  to  be  bad,  unkind,  selfish  and  immoral. 

While  Miss  Schofield  was  kind  and  generous  to  prod- 
igality she  was  also  as  brave  as  a lion  and  quick  as  a 
tiger  to  fight  if  the  occasion  demanded  it.  While  she 
always  took  counsel  and  weighed  matters  carefully  she 
never  failed  to  contend  for  what  she  believed  to  be  right. 
Her  nature  seemed  blended  with  the  holiness  of  a sacred 
spirituality,  imparted  to  it  no  doubt  by  her  religious 
training,  and  an  invincibleness  in  matters  affecting  so- 
cial relations  that  bordered  the  stubbornness  of  Satan. 


16 


Martha  Schofield. 


Influenced,  possibly,  to  greatness  in  the  latter  attribute 
by  the  teachings  of  the  Abolitionist  Party,  to  which  she 
belonged  in  heart,  mind  and  soul? 

As  one  of  her  most  valued  friends  and  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  of  the  many  noteworthy  people  said  of  her  at 
the  funeral,  the  author  wishes  to  repeat  here : “Martha 

Schofield  is  not  dead;  she  lives  and  will  continue  to  live 
in  the  memory  of  her  students  scattered  all  over  South 
Carolina  and  other  States.  She  lives  in  their  memory 
and  in  the  memory  of  their  children’s  children,  for 
there  are  few  colored  homes  in  which  her  name  and 
deeds  are  not  recounted  in  the  family  circle.  I count 
some  of  her  best  work,  the  efforts  she  made  to  elevate 
and  purify  the  home.  She  spent  much  time  and  en- 
dured many  hardships  traveling  through  the  country 
speaking  and  teaching  the  value  of  homes  and  the  neces- 
sity of  clean  homes,  both  physically  and  morally.  She 
never  tired  of  stressing  these  things  and  there  are  many 
good  Negro  homes  in  South  Carolina  and  all  over  the 
Southland  that  are  evidences  that  her  efforts  have  not 
been  in  vain.  Martha  Schofield  was  helpful  not  alone 
to  the  Negroes  but  also  to  the  whites,  for  good  Negroes 
make  good  whites  and  good  whites  make  good  Negroes.” 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Inspired  by  High  Ideals. 

What  motive  led  this  young  woman  of  only  twenty- 
six,  surrounded  by  wealth,  by  culture,  and  every  circum- 
stance that  made  her  not  only  acceptable  but  desirable 
in  the  highest  circles  of  society,  to  abandon  all — home 
and  friends  and  mobey  and  the  pleasures  which  her  pos- 
ition in  the  social  world  brings — for  a life  of  the  most 
arduous  toil  among  a barbarous,  if  not  a savage  people, 
whose  skin,  unlike  hers,  was  black  and  whose  habits  and 
customs  were  thought  to  be  repugnant  and  repelling 
to  those  of  refinement?  She  had  been  fully  appraised, 
too,  of  the  physical  dangers  that  lay  in  wait  for  any  one 
who  would  condescend  to  prostitute  their  powers  of 
mind  in  the  instruction  and  elevation  of  the  Negro  race, 
at  the  hands  of  the  whites  of  the  South.  Her  position 
between  the  fire  of  social  ostracism  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  fagot  on  the  other  was  one  not  to  be  envied.  It 
would  liave~~daunted  the  courage  of  any  woman  made  of 
weaker  stuff,  but  being  of  sterner  material  and  obsessed 
with  a sense  of  duty  in  a just  cause,  such  a sense  of 
duty  as  led  both  the  blue  and  the  gray  to  do  and  die  in 
the  cause  which  each  conceived  to  be  right,  Martha 
Schofield  set  a star  for  herself  and  determined  to  go  to 
it  even  if  she  was  forced  to  wade  through  blood  and  fire 
in  doing  so. 

Beginning  her  first  labors  on  Wadmalaw  Island,  be- 
tween Charleston  and  Beaufort,  in  South  Carolina, 
Miss  Schofield  suffered  every  inconvenience  and  priva- 
tion of  frontier  life.  Aside  from  the  annoyance  and 
hindrances  placed  in  her  way  by  the  few  scattered  white 
settlers  in  sympathy  with  the  Order  of  the  Ku  Klux 
Klan,  life  as  made  unsafe  by  many  diseases  that  flourish 
in  this  climate. 

The  enrollment  in  her  school  consisted  of  the  child- 
ren of  the  1,500  Negroes  who  had  followed  Sherman  in 
his  march  to  the  sea.  She  had  the  assistance  of  only 
one  person,  a white  woman. 


18 


Martha  Schofield. 


She  set  to  work  not  only  to  educate  an  army  of  Child- 
ren'but  the  duty  of  clothing  and  feeding  the  naked  and 
starving,  of  which  there  were  u*any,  fell  to  her  lot. 

It  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  imagination  of  the  pres- 
ent generation  to  adequately  comprehend  the  hardships 
endured  by  her  at  the  time  of  which  we  write.  October 
24,  1865,  she  wrote  in  her  diary  as  follows : 

‘‘This  morning  I took  my  bread  to  school  to  watch ; 
when  light  enough  I made  it  up  and  sent  it  half-mile 
away  to  be  baked  in  the  only  stove  in  the  village.  We 
distributed  clothing  for  102  today.” 

But  for  the  aid  of  the  Society  of  Friends  and  the 
Abolitionists  who  supplied  food  and  clothing  to  her  for 
free  distribution,  hundreds  would  have  died  from  star- 
vation and  thousands  have  gone  as  naked  as  were  the 
custom  of  some  of  the  Negroes  when  captured  in  Africa 
and  brought  to  this  country  as  slaves. 

Under  the  conditions  which  Miss  Schofield  created  an 
immense  amount  of  suffering  was  dissipated.  Not  only 
the  Negroes  but  she  herself,  faced  starvation  at  one  time 
for  several  weeks.  This  occurred  when  the  steamer 
from  Philadelphia,  laden  with  a cargo  of  groceries, 
clothing,  shoes  and  books,  ran  aground  and  remained 
motionless  for  thirty-one  days.  During  this  time  Miss 
Schofield  set  the  Negroes  to  work  gathering  oysters  and 
acorns.  With  these  and  a few  boxes  of  crackers,  which 
she  had  hidden  away  for  just  such  an  emergency,  she 
originated  a kind  of  porridge  that  prevented  actual  star- 
vation. “The  crackers,”  she  writes  in  her  diary  “had  to 
be  broken  up  in  fine  parts  so  as  to  remove  the  worms 
from  them.” 

The  same  tale  of  poverty  and  almost  inconceivable 
hardships  followed  her  from  Wadlamaw  to  Edisto  in 
1866  and  on  to  the  Island  of  St.  Helena  in  1S67.  But 
these  were  things  to  be  expected  and  to  be  born  patient- 
ly as  long  as  she  had  strength  and  health.  But  these 
gave  away  right  here  at  St.  Helena  in  the  secbnd  year 
of  her  immigration  to  South  Carolina.  It  was  here  that 
malarial  fever,  with  which  this  section  has  been  infected 


Inspired  by  High  Ideals 


L9 


ever  since  it  was  settled,  attacked  lier,  and  for  quite  a 
long  time  her  life  was  despaired  of.  “This  illness,”  she 
writes,  “occasioned  hemorrhages  of  the  'lungs,  from 
which  all  hope  of  recovery  was  abandoned  by  my 
friends.” 

It  was  at  this  very  critical  period  in  her  career  that 
those  flighty  and  fashionable  friends  in  the  North,  some 
of  them  her  nearest  relatives,  urged  her  with  all  their 
might  to  give  up  the  undertaking  in  the  South  and  re' 
turn  to  her  home.  It  was  very  much  against  the  will 
and  desires  of  her  own  people  as  well  as  against  the 
wishes  of  her  best  friends  that  she  sacrifice  her  time  and 
life  in  the  interest  of  any  race  or  cause,  and  she  was 
told  so  before  the  instinct  to  enage  in  social  welfare 
work  had  totally  possessed  her.  They  now  drew  a pict- 
ure of  a frail  sickly  woman  with  one  foot  in  the  grave 
and  the  other  lifted  up  to  follow,  and  asked  her  if  such 
a feeble  body  even  though  possessed  of  ample  means  to 
employ  teachers,  had  the  power  to  direct  the  work  so 
necessary  to  be  done.  She  was  urged  to  get  out  of  the 
business  in  order  to  make  room  for  some  one  stronger 
than  she,  who  still  had  the  strength  to  carry  to  comple- 
tion the  noble  undertaking  set  in  motion  by  her. 

But  Martha  Schofield  answered  with  these  words : 
“As  long  as  there  is  life  in  me  to  work,  I shall  work. 
The  coast  may  not  be  the  place  but  I will  yet  find  the 
place.” 

And  she  did. 

So  in  1868  she  went  to  Aiken,  S.  C.,  and  started  work 
again  after  losing  her  health  and  all  her  personal  in- 
come. Assisted  by  an  auxiliary  branch  of  the  “Freed- 
man’s Commission,”  a charitable  organization  composed 
of  two  dozen  ladies,  of  Germantown,  Pa.,  she  soon  was 
able  to  begin  work  on  a scale  of  some  promise. 

In  1870  the  United  States  Government,  through  the 
“Freedman’s  Bureau,”  took  official  recognition  of  the 
necessity  for  the  kind  of  work  being  done  by  her  by  hav- 
ing a small  frame  house  erected  for  her.  This  house 
still  stands. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Brightnesss  op  Martha’s  Pupils. 

When  Martha  Schofield  opened  her  first  school  in 
South  Carolina  it  was  impossible  to  secure  the  necess- 
ary text  books  and  much  of  the  instruction  was  oral. 
With  the  few  books  which  the  school  did  possess  it  was 
not  an  uncommon  sight  to  see  three  and  four  pupils  pre- 
paring their  lessons  from  the  same  book.  The  children 
took  the  books  home  nights,  until  the  “Blue  Back”  and 
Webster’s  had  gone  the  circuit  round  many  times.  Hav- 
ing advanced  to  the  ability  to  write  and  read  script,  a 
pupil  was  no  longer  eligible  to  the  benefits  of  the  circu- 
lating library.  He  was  then  forced  to  copy  at  his  spare 
time  the  lessons  he  was  supposed  to  prepare  during  the 
night. 

Noth  with  standing  the  serious  difficulties  attending 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge  without  the  aid  of  books, 
the  intellectual  as  well  as  the  moral  improvement  of  not 
only  the  children  but  their  parents  as  well  was  soon  ap- 
parent. “There  was  an  eager  desire  among  all  the  child- 
ren to  attend  school”  says  Miss  Schofield  in  writing  of 
her  experiences  on  the  Coast  and  later  at  Aiken ; “never 
a truant.” 

The  average  attendance  of  the  Negroes  at  school  in 
the  South  today  exceeds  the  attendance  of  1900  by  over 
10  per  cent.  This  thirsting  after  knowledge  by  the 
brother  in  black  is  one  of  his  redeeming  characteristics. 

Miss  Schofield  once  put  the  question  to  a class  in  Ge- 
ography as  to  what  the  world  rested  on.  A grown  man 
replied  that  it  rested  on  stumps  and  big  wild  animals. 
A ten  year  old  boy  corrected  him  by  saying  that  it  rested 
on  the  Power  of  God.  These  definitions  will  serve  to 
show  the  dense  ignorance  of  the  race  at  the  time  Miss 
Schofield  began  teaching. 

In  a definition  exercise  the  class  was  requested  to  de- 
fine the  word,  husband.  Volunteers  were  called  for  but 
no  one  volunteered.  In  an  effort  to  lucify  the  subject 
and  assist  them  to  guess  the  meaning  of  the  word,  with 


Brightness  of  Martha’s  Pupils. 


21 


an  approximate  accuracy,  Miss  Schofield  asked  them  to 
tell  her  what  she  would  have  were  she  to  marry.  A lit- 
tle girl,  almost  ten,  replied,  with  much  enthusiasm  but 
unconscious  of  auy  wit  at  all,  “A  baby.” 

As  soon  as  a student  mastered  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to  read  without 
much  faltering  afid  write  at  all  legibly  and  add  a sum 
of  four  or  five  numbers,  Miss  Schofield  set  him  to  teach- 
ing. The  scarcity  of  teachers  made  this  expedient  im- 
perative. 

A middle-aged  man,  Isaac  Kimberley,  who  as  a slave 
had  been  taught  to  read  and  write  but  had  greatly  added 
to  his  fund  of  knowledge  by  a term  at  Miss  Schofield’s 
school,  was  one  of  the  first  to  be  honored  with  a school. 
It  was  located  near  Miss  Schofield’s  and  closely  super- 
vised by  her.  Isaac  assumed  the  duties  of  it  with  all 
the  dignity  of  some  divinely  appointed  potentate  and 
proceeded  at  once  to  make  use  of  only  the  most  care- 
fully chosen  words  possible,  and  put  on  a haughty,  un- 
dignified air  that  made  him  more  ridiculous  than  he 
really  was.  Alford  Kimberley,  a son  of  his  former  mas- 
ter, on  meeting  him  soon  after  he  began  teaching,  ad- 
dressed him  familiarly  as  “Uncle  Ike.”  “I’le  hab  yo’  to 
understan,’  sub,  clat  Ise  neaver  yo’  uncle  or  yo  antie, 
suh,  Ise  yo  eacle,”  said  Isaac  in  reply.  “Frum  dis 
day  on,  ef  yo’  pleas,  suh,  Ise  Prof.  Isaak  Kimberley,” 
continued  the  new  teacher. 

“Well.,  take  that,  and  that,  Prof.  Isaac  Kimberley, 
from  your  equal,”  responded  Alford,  as  he  bent  over  the 
prostrate  form  of  the  instructor,  lying  in  the  ditch  by 
the  roadside  where  he  had  knocked  him.  “I’ll  teach  you 
yet  how  to  talk  to  white  gentlemen,  you  low-down  lover 
of  blue-belliecl  Yankees,  you !” 

No  report  of  this  dramatic  incident  ever  reached  the 
ears  of  Miss  Schofield  as  Isaac  was  afraid  it  might.  He 
concealed  it  from  everybody  in  the  neighborhood  as 
much  as  possible,  both  on  account  of  having  gotten 
whipped  in  his  first  encounter  after  becoming  a free 
man  and  also  on  account  of  an  increasing  amount  of 


22 


Martha  Schofield. 


comment  among  both  colored  and  white  that  lie  was  dai- 
ly growing  too  big  for  his  breeches  and  would  have  to 
be  whipped. 

Miss  Schofield’s  confidence  in  him,  at  no  time,  it  is 
needless  to  say,  was  very  great,  but  it  was  Isaac  or 
worse.  She  finally  dismissed  him  and  looked  around  in 
vain  for  a “worser”  one. 

His  dismissal  followed  a visit  to  his  school,  which  she 
was  in  the  habit  of  making  regularly. 

The  day  was  an  unusually  cold  one  for  South  Caroli- 
na, where  the  temperature  in  the' winter  seldom  reaches 
the  freezing  point,  and  through  the  unsealed  crevices  be- 
tween the  poles  out  of  which  the  house  was  built,  the 
sleet  and  snow  drifted  joyously  in.  A half  hundred  or 
more  half  clothed  and  well  nigh  starved  little  black  ur- 
chins shook  the  shackly  floor  with  their  shivering  and 
drowned  their  voices  with  the  chattering  of  their  teeth. 
If  ever  there  was  a blue-lipped,  blue-gummed  Negro 
school  Isaac’s  was  surely  one  on  that  day. 

The  extreme  cold  weather  and  the  open  condition  of 
the  house  gave  every  student  a free  license  to  leave  his 
seat,  even  without  permission  of  the  authority  in  charge, 
and  crowd  in  close  proximity  around  the  wide  open 
hearth  at  the  end  of  the  building,  where  with  the  shiv- 
ering of  limbs,  chattering  of  teeth  and  shuffling ,of  feet, 
all  noise  of  their  cries  and  shrieks  as  one  would  pinch 
the  other  or  mash  a toe  or  hit  this  one  or  that  one  over 
the  head  with  a well  worn  book  or  trab  ball,  was  drown- 
ed out. 

In  the  midst  of  the  greatest  confusion,  Isaac,  with  the 
purpose  in  view  of  dispersing  the  crowd  and  relieving 
the  congestion  around  the  “fire  place”  blurted  out  with 
an  assumed  air  of  supreme  dignity : “John  Thomas,  why 
don’t,  yo’  add  full  to  de  flame?”  With  his  black  eyes 
blinking  like  a rabbits  when  shot  at  and  trembling  from 
head  to  foot  and  turning  round  like  a Bob  White  in  a 
trap,  it  was  clear  to  Miss  Schofield  that  the  child  did 
not  understand  what  the  master  of  the  school  wished  to 


Brightness  of  Martha's  Pupils. 


23 


be  done.  She  immediately  came  to  the  relief  of  all,  as 
she  always  seemed  capable  of  doing  in  each  and  every 
predicament  in  which  she  or  any  of  her  children  (child- 
ren is  what  she  called  all  the  students)  found  them- 
selves, by  saying,  “Isaac,  tell  John  Thomas  to  put  some 
wood  on  the  fire  and  he  will  understand  thee.” 

Walking  along  home  with  Isaac  after  dismission  that 
afternoon  she  informed  him  that  it  would  be  necessary 
to  suspend  his  school  until  the  house  could  be  repaired. 
Isaac,  tired  of  waiting  for  the  needed  repairs,  returned 
to  the  Schofield  school  for  instruction  himself  and  tak- 
ing up  the  study  of  harness  making,  developed  into  a 
genius  for  work  of  this  kind.  After  years  of  success 
at  the  bench  in  one  of  the  best  shops  in  a large  South- 
ern city, where  he  earned  $22.50  a week,  the  government 
of  the  United  States  awarded  a contract  to  him  for  250 
army  saddles.  He  could  not  teach  school  but  he  could 
make  saddles  and  harness. 

The  greatness  of  Miss  Schofield’s  work  consisted  of 
converting  men  and  women  who  could  never  develop  in- 
to great  singers  and  teachers  into  useful  productive 
workers  and  making  them  to  see  beauty  as  well  as  profit 
in  the  humbler  tasks. 

The  sad  experience  had  with  Isaac  Kimberley  as  a 
teacher  indicated  to  Miss  Schofield  the  necessity  for  rais- 
ing the  standard  of  qualification  for  all  applicants  for 
teacher’s  certificates,  and  with  the  cooperation  of  Mose 
Graham,  a Negro,  who  could  scarcely  read  or  write  but 
who  had  been  made  County  School  Commissioner  by  the 
Radical  Party,  then  in  complete  control  of  the  State  and 
National  Government,  she  undertook  to  do  this,  which 
proved  a complete  failure  on  account  of  the  illiteracy 
of  the  Negro  race  and  the  reluctance  with  which  compe- 
tent white  teachers  from  the  North  accepted  the  call 
from  the  South  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  teaching  profes- 
sion. 

Ephriam  Daniels,  a six  months  pupil  of  the  Schofield 
School,  where  he  acquired  the  art  of  reading  fluently 
and  writing  legibly  and  also  mastered  the  four  funda- 


24 


Martha  Schofield. 


mental  rules  of  arithmetic,  concluded  trat  in  staying  on 
the  farm  and  tilling  the  soil  he  was  hiding  his  light  un- 
der a bushel  and  therefore,  committing  a sin  which  the 
Bible  commanded  him  not  commit,  so  he  made  applica- 
tion to  Mose  for  a certificate  to  engage  in  the  noble  call- 
ing of  teaching. 

“Mr.  Commissioner  Graham,”  said  Epliriam,  “I’se  a 
wastin’  mull  tallents  bellin’  de  plow  handles,  as  I is  a 
mi’ty  smart  man  ef  I is  a.  nigger,  and  so  I haf  com  ter 
see  yo’  ’bout  gitten  one  o’  dem  licenses  to  teach  chill en 
wid.  Wi’l  yo’  gib  mull  one?” 

Mose  explained  in  detail  and  in  a very  perfunctory 
manner  the  difficulties  of  the  teacher  and  discoursed 
considerably  on  the  small  compensation  paid  them.  But 
encouraged  his  friend,  however,  by  saying  that  the  har- 
vest was  great  and  the  laborers  few,  by  which  lie  meant 
that  the  office  of  County  School  Commissioner  had  a 
number  of  schools  but  no  one  to  teach  them. 

“Don’t  care  ’bout  difficultys  and  small  pa’— dats  what 
yo’  mean  by — what  did' you  call  it? — com — something — 
commishion,  I beleives.  All  I wants  is  ter  teach.  I’se 
going  in  der  bizness  fer  de  gud  I kin  do,  not  fer  de 
muney.” 

“Very  good,  indeed,”  said  Mose,  “but  befo’  I kin  li- 
sence  yo’  ter  teech  I’se  got  to  see  Miss  Marther  Scho- 
field and  hab’  yo’  examed  by  her  and  me.  Yo’  cum  ter 
see  me  termorrow,  ’bout  ten  o’clock.” 

When  Miss  Schofield  heard  of  the  ambitions  of  Eph- 
riam  that  afternoon  her  heart  ran  down  in  her  shoes, 
both  because  of  the  impossibility  which  she  knew  exist- 
ed of  ever  making  a teacher  of  Epliriam  and  the  equally 
impossible  task  of  helping  him  to  realize  it.  He  was  as 
stubborn  as  a mule  in  his  ways  and  when  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  do  anything  he  worked  at  it  with  all  his 
poor  brain  till  it  either  proved  successful  or  fizzled  out. 
Tt  pained  her  to  think  of  the  neglect  which  she  knew  in 
her  own  mind  had  attended  his  crop  throughout  the 
spring  season  when  it  needed  most  attention,  which  she 


Brightness  of  Martha’s  Pupils. 


25 


was  well  aware  from  the  nature  of  Ephriam  had  been 
diverted  to  the  subject  of  school  teaching. 

But  on  the  insistance  of  Graham,  in  whose  favor  she 
had  often  to  make  some  concessions,  though  none  of  any 
importance,  she  at  some  expense  of  time  and  dignity 
consented  to  meet  him  at  his  office  at  the  appointed 
hour  for  the  purpose  of  examining  Ephriam  Daniels  for 
a certificate  to  teach  in  the  free  public  schools. 

Dressed  in  a soldier’s  old  uniform,  which  was  secured 
from  the  remnants  of  Sherman’s  Army  as  they  passed 
through  South  Carolina ; with  a large  bandana  handker- 
chief around  his  neck  for  a collar  and  an  old  stove  pipe 
hat  which  his  old  master,  John  Rutledge  Daniels,  had 
given  him  on  the  day  of  his  freedom,  Ephriam  appeared 
before  the  examining  board  with  a pocket  full  of  pen- 
cils and  a quire  or  two  of  ruled  fools-cap  paper. 

Miss  Schofield,  who  was  one  of  the  kindest  and  gent- 
lest of  women  whom  the  author  ever  knew,  eyed  Ephri- 
am with  a well  concealed  curiosity  as  she  asked  him 
what  preparations  he  had  made  for  taking  the  examina- 
tion. 

“Wull,  Mis’  Sch’fields,”  he  said,  “I’se  got  heap  ob  pen- 
cils and  papur.” 

“Yes,  I see  you  h^ve,”  replied  the  examiner,  with 
laughter  almost  bursting  her  throat,  “but  what  I mean 
to  get  at  is,  what  preparations  have  you  made  for  teach- 
ing school?” 

Quick  as  a flash  Ephriam  replied  that  he  had  sold  his 
horse  and  rented  out  his  farm. 

The  uproarous  laughter  which  this  answer  produced 
was  genuinely  participated  in  by  all  present,  including 
Ephriam,  although  he  could  not  for  the  life  of  himself, 
as  he  afterwards  stated,  see  what  all  the  laughing  was 
about. 

Extending  the  examination  a little  more  for  the  pur- 
pose of  entertaining  and  amusing  still  further  the  board 
and  its  lone  applicant,  Miss  Schofield  was  unkind 
enough  to  ask  the  definition  of  the  noun,  “word.” 


26 


Martha  Schofield. 


“Word,”  repeated  Ephriam,  now  quite  seriously  per- 
plexed, “why,  Mis’  Scliofiels,  yo’  slioley  uoes  dat  I noes 
dat  a word  is  someting  dat  yo’  sais.” 

When  she  put  the  question  of  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  Arithmetic,  Ephriam  readily  admitted  that  he 
did  not  know,  and  in  a polite  way  gave  the  board  to  un- 
derstand that  he  did  not  see  the  necessity  for  scholar- 
ship of  a high  grade  for  teaching  “niggers  what  don't 
’no  der  A B C’s.” 

Not  long  afterward,  Ephriam,  his  wife  and  their  four 
children  were  stricken  with  small  pox — that  malignant 
infection  formerly  very  common  in  the  South — and  it 
was  beautiful  the  way  Miss  Schofield  attended  to  their 
wants  during  the  period  of  illness  and  final  death  and 
burial  of  Ephriam.  On  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day 
of  the  appearance  of  the  dreaded  malady,  Miss  Schofield 
appeared  at  the  home  with  breakfast  for  all  and  was 
horrified  to  find  the  body  of  the  father  behind  the  door, 
his  death  occuring  sometime  during  the  night,  unknown 
to  the  other  members  of  the  family. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

Education  Under  Difficulties. 

Some  time  as  many  as  a half  dozen  funerals  a day 
occurred  in  the  coast  region  from  malarial  fever  or 
small  pox.  The  chances  for  recovery  were  rendered 
difficult  by  the  absence  of  any  physician,  the  nearest  one 
being  sixty  miles  away. 

Among  the  medicines  sent  Miss  Schofield  from 
friends  of  the  North  was  a bottle  of  port  wine.  This 
was  sent  in  1876,  when  she  was  attacked  by  a hemor- 
rhage of  the  lungs,  with  instructions  from  a physician 
that  she  must  take  it  three  times  a day.  But  the  fear 
of  setting  an  example  which  might  prove  the  ruin  of 
many  people  in  her  charge  caused  her  not  to  open  it. 
She  took  it  to  Aiken,  and  during  the  construction  of  her 
residence  there  it  was  deposited  in  the  walls  and  no  one 
except  Miss  Schofield  to  the  day  of  her  death,  on  Feb- 
ruay  1,  1916,  knew  where  to  break  the  wall ; no  one  on 
earth  knows  just  where  to  this  very  day. 

She  despised  the  avarice  and  greed  that  caused  men 
to  manufacture  intoxicants  but  hated  with  the  venom 
of  the  devil  the  lust  for  gain  by  the  munieipalites  and 
States  which  caused  them  to  issue  licenses  for  the  rnon- 
ufaeture  of  alcohol.  She  taught  and  lived  that  the 
greatest  criminal  in  the  history  of  criminology  was  the 
criminal  who  issued  the  license  for  the  commission  of 
crime.  In  her  opinion  this  was; not  only  a crime  against 
society  but  a crime  against  criminals  as  well. 

The  pernicious  influence  of  alcohol  on  the  Negro  was 
largely  responsible  for  her  antagonism  to  the  liquor 
traffic.  Opposed  to  it  naturally,  as  every  educated  and 
thinking  person  must  be,  she  was  more  so  after  observ- 
ing its  destructive  influence  among  the  ignorant  and 
vicious. 

It  was  confidently  believed  by  her  that  if  every  Negro 
capable  of  complying  with  the  registration  laws  regulat- 
ing the  qualification  of  voters,  was  registered  and  al- 
lowed to  vote,  uninfluenced  by  any  oustide  influence, 


28 


Martha  Schofield. 


that  the  legal  sale  of  alcoholic  stimulants  in  the  South  at 
least,  would  be  a thing  of  the  past.  She  believed  also  that 
if  positions  on  the  police  force  were  available  to  colored 
men  for  service  in  the  Negro  sections  of  the  cities  that 
not  only  would  the  illegal  sale  of  intoxicants  be  stopped 
but  crimes  of  every  character  would  be  largely  sup- 
pressed. 

Martha  Schofield,  having  lived  to  see  accomplished 
the  task  to  which  her  life  had  been  dedicated  on  the  day 
her  father  rescued  Laura  Duncan  from  the  blood  hounds 
' of  the  slave  holding  oligarchy,  died  as  happy  and  serene 
as  an  angel,  perfectly  confident  that  the  work  she  had 
been  doing  would  gain  momentum  and  go  on  more 
splendidly  each  year,  until  illiteracy  and  physical  and 
moral  degradation  would  be  an  exceptional  thing  among’ 
the  Negroes. 

Between  the  years  of  1890  and  1910  the  percentage  of 
Negro  illiteracy  had  fallen  from  57.10  to  30.40  per  cent, 
among  children  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  fourteen 
years.  For  those  fifteen  years  of  age  and  under  nine- 
teen, the  percentage  of  illiteracy  was  only  18.90  per 
cent. 

The  greater  illiteracy  in  the  higher  age  classes  is  very 
marked,  the  illiteracy  of  Negroes  of  55  to  64  years  of 
age  being  about  67  per  cent,  of  the  total,  and  nearly 
every  one  of  those  of  65  years  and  above  were  found  to 
be  unable  to  read  or  write  when  the  1910  census  was 
taken. 

Negroes  of  sixty  years  and  above,  it  will  be  recalled, 
were  past  childhood  before  emancipation,  when  little  or 
no  provision  was  made  to  teach  them  to  read  and  write, 
and  this  accounts  for  the  high  percentage  of  illiteracy 
in  the  old  people  and  the  rapidly  decreasing  percent- 
age of  illiteracy  among  their  children. 

At  the  rate  of  advance  in  education  among  the  Ne- 
groes at  present  there  will  be  less  than  10  per  cent,  of 
the  population  between  ten  and  fourteen  illiterate  in 
1920,  and  every  child  of  sane  mind  and  sound  body  will 
be  able  to  read  and  write  by  1930,  when  the  Fourteenth 


Education  Under  Difficulties. 


29 


Census  shall  have  been  taken.  This  all  in  the  space  of 
fifty  years.  Remarkable ! 

And  yet  there  are  well  informed  influential  people 
who  still  maintain  that  the  progress  of  the  Negro  has 
been  slow,  superficial  and  unworthy  of  the  effort  and 
money  expended  on  it. 

Maybe  so,  but  all  admit,  that  it  is  very  helpful  to 
every  human  being  to  be  able  to  read  and  write,  to  be 
able  to  assimilate  the  thoughts  of  others  and  to  express 
his  thoughts  and  hand  them  on  to  others  of  his  kind  by 
other  means  than  by  the  word  of  mouth.  To  deny  this 
would  be  equal  to  denying  one  the  right  to  be  taught 
the  use  of  his  mind  or  tongue,  the  two  organs  which 
God  in  His  infinite  wisdom  put  no  ban  upon,  but  made 
free  as  the  air  of  Heaven,  restricting  their  use  only  to 
the  accomplishment  of  honorable  and  noble  undertak- 
ings, thus  dethroning  the  power  of  all,  who  though  pos- 
sessed of  powerful  intellect,  would  use  their  talent  in 
the  interest  of  the  base  and  ignoble. 

While  the  peoples  of  all  races  are  born  with  a knowl- 
edge of  good  and  evil  they  are  not  possessed  at  birth 
with  the  knowledge  which  science  is  suppossed  to  endow 
them  with,  and  therefore,  it  should  be  the  pleasure,  as 
it  certainly  is  the  imperative  duty  of  the  State  to  pro- 
vide liberally  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  even 
the  humblest  of  all  its  citizens. 

Martha  Schofield  taught  more  emphatically  than  any- 
thing else  the  economic  necessity  which  exists  among  all 
races  for  the  performance  of  duty,  one  to  another.  She 
argued  that  unrighted  wrongs  retard  the  progress  of 
races,  and  if  not  checked  by  the  refinements  of  civiliza- 
tion, through  the  enlightenment  of  the  mind,  become  the 
instruments  which  at  last  wreck  and  destroy  the  strong- 
est ships  of  State.  She  wanted  her  work  to  prove  to 
the  country  that  great  measures  of  service  in  the  field 
of  education  was  the  price  to  be  paid  for  the  salvation 
of  our  land  against  the  misery  and  death,  which  others 
through  ignorance  and  greed,  had  sown.  She  made  the 
man  at  the  North  without  principle  or  scruple  to  modi- 


30 


Martha  Schofield. 


fy  his  ambition  in  the  selfish  accumulation  of  wealth 
equally  as  culpable  as  the  man  of  the  South,  in  produc- 
ing the  suffering  and  misery  which  attended  the  great 
civil  conflict  for  freedom.  She  exhibited  the  chaos  at- 
tending the  Reconstruction  period  as  the  awful  penalty 
for  benighted  stupidity  and  ignorance  of  an  earlier  day, 
for  which  none  of  the  present  day  is  accountable,  and 
whose  fruits  none,  in  an  earlier  past,  foresaw. 

Her  doctrine  of  the  elevation  of  the  Negro  so  as  to 
meet  the  necessities  of  the  new  standard  of  civilization 
which  freedom  had  thrust  upon  him,  spread  like  wild 
fire  on  a western  prairie,  and  was,  of  course,  shocking, 
even  inconceivable  to  the  imagination  of  the  Southern 
Vjrhite  mind,  which  had  been  taught  and  religiously  be- 
lieved that  education  impaired  the  usefulness  of  the  col- 
ored people,  both  as  productive  machines  in  the  hard 
field  of  toil  and  as  mediums  for  the  expression  of  the 
divine  messages  of  power. 

“No  amount  or  kind  of  learning,”  they  argued,  “can 
be  made  available  to  the  ‘nigger’  because  of  his  inabili- 
ty to  assimilate  it.  He’s  a brute,  pure  and  simple,  and 
has  anyone  ever  succeeded  through  teaching  in  making 
a brute  anything  but  a brute?” 

“Pigs  will  be  pigs.” 

Laws  by  the  General  Assembly  of  South  Carolina  for- 
bade the  whites  the  privilege  of  teaching  Negroes,  but 
it  was  ignored  by  many  good  men  and  women  who  de- 
voted much  time  and  money  to  the  education  of  the  race. 

An  influential  Southern  man,  a former  Governor  of 
one  of  the  great  States  of  the  South  and  now  an  hon- 
ored member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  once 
wrote  a book  in  which  he  delved  deep  into  history  and 
anthropology  and  proved  to  the  complete  satisfaction  of 
the  voters  of  his  State  and  to  a great  number  of  the 
learned  professors  of  the  sciences  in  some  of  the  South- 
ern colleges,  that  the  Negro  by  every  fact  known  to  the 
scientists  and  evolutionists  was  a member  of  the  fami- 
lies of  the  lower  animals,  and,  therefore,  an  impossibil- 
ity in  the  matter  of  intellectual  development. 


Education  Under  Diffculties. 


31 


The  influence  of  this  propaganda  at  the  South  exert- 
ed itself  strongly  to  the  detriment  of  the  work  under- 
taken by  Miss  Schofield,  and  others  who  came  after  her, 
in  that  it  aroused  the  passions  of  the  ignorant  whites 
and  determined  them  in  the  course  of  lawlessness,  which 
but  for  the  zeal  and  strength  of  heart  expressed  by  Mar- 
tha Schofield  might  have  succeeded  in  delaying  for 
many  years  the  phenominal  rise  and  progress  of  the 
black  people  of  the  Southern  States. 

One  Sunday  morning,  the  sun  in  all  its  radiance  and 
splendor  lighting  up  the  whole  world,  doing  for  the 
earth  and  every  creature  and  plant  on  it  (giving  them 
light  and  warmth  and  moisture  that  they  might  develop 
and  grow  to  perfection)  just  what  God  would  have  us 
do — help  along  everything  good  that  we  can — on  such  a 
morning  as  this — a band  of  armed  men  approached  Miss 
Schofield’s  home  and  demanded  that  she  quit  teaching 
Negro  children  and  return  to  her  home  or  she  would  be 
forced  to  do  so. 

To  these  she  replied  as  follows : “Thee  can  kill  my 

body  and  hide  it  away,  but  my  soul  is  of  God,  that  is 
the  one  invincible  thing,  which  thee  can  not  kill.” 

A noble  life  consecrated  absolutely,  even  in  the  face 
of  death,  to  the  uplift  and  service  of  a lowly,  impover- 
ished race)!  Everywhere  she  went,  she  reached  right- 
eousness, law,  order,  temperance,  truth,  cleanliness, 
thoroughness  and  economy. 

After  fifty  years  of  toil,  of  social  ostracism,  of  infin- 
itely wicked  persecution,  which  in  later  years  by  her  pa- 
tience, by  her  kindness  and  charity  was  greatly  modi- 
fied, she  fell  in  the  harness,  full  of  achievements  from 
the  work  which  God  had  given  her  to  do.  At  both  the 
funeral  service  at  Aiken,  S.  C.,  where  she  died  on  the 
night  before  the  event  arranged  by  friends  to  celebrate 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  her  service  to  the  colored  peo- 
ple and  her  helpfulness  to  all  who  met  her  socially  or  in 
a business  way,  and  at  Darby  Meeting  House,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, where  the  interment  of  the  body  took  place,  sol- 
emn covenants  consecrating  mind  and  heart  and  hand, 


32 


Martha  Schofield. 


amid  the  tears  and  sobs  of  blacks  and  whites  alike,  were 
made  by  many  to  keep  alive  forever  the  spark  of  truth 
and  life  she  was  first  to  express  the  courage  to  plant  in 
a land  of  enemies,  surrounded  on  every  side  by  the  dan- 
gers of  assassination  and  the  ravages  of  small  pox,  ma- 
laria, and  dengue  fevers. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Cause  of  Many  Riots. 

Between  the  years  of  1865  and  1876  the  severest  tests 
were  put  to  the  work  of  being  done  by  Miss  Schofield,  to 
see  whether  it  could  be  made  practical  or  not.  By  the 
courage  with  which  she  met  and  answered  them  she  es- 
tablished once  and  for  always  the  truth  that  the  pro- 
gress of  light* and  reason  can  not  be  retarded  long,  no 
matter  by  whom  and  for  what  purpose  such  an  attempt 
might  be  undertaken.  The  outrageous  murders  of  Ne- 
groes by  white  men  which  went  on  almost  daily  following 
the  unwise  policy  of  the  government  at  Washington  in 
putting  them  in  power  in  the  South  before  many  of  them 
could  scarcely  read  or  write,  precipitated  the  greatest  ex- 
citement throughout  the  country.  These  outrages  at- 
tracted the  indignation  of  the  North  and  martial  law 
was  declared  all  over  South  Carolina.  This  was  done  to 
enforce  the  rights  of  the  peaceable,  law-abiding  whites, 
as  well  as  the  rights  of  that  class  of  Negroes.  Of  course, 
much  blame  for  the  haughty  attitude  of  the  Negro  and 
the  declaration  of  martial  law  was  laid  at  the  door  of 
Miss  Schofield,  whose  teaching  it  was  generally  believed 
by  the  ignorant  whites,  was  responsible  for  the  deplor- 
able state  of  affairs  that  existed.  The  Northern  press 
at  the  time  carried  over  her  signature  many  accounts  of 
the  numerous  brutalities  happening  in  and  around  Ai- 
ken and  she  was  repeatedly  called  to  account  by  the 
leading  white  people,  all  assuming  a threatening  atti- 
tude that  would  have  put  to  flight  almost  any  other  wo- 
man. But  Miss  Schofield  would  meet  her  antagonists 
face  to  face  and  dare  them  to  harm  even  one  hair  of  her 
head.  She  would  remind  them  that  they  were  all  chiv- 
alrous white  gentlemen  and  could  not  under  their  own 
pretences  attack  her  and  do  her  violence  without  sur- 
rendering every  right  and  claim  which  they  might  have 
upon  knight  erranty. 

In  a New  York  newspaper  of  the  year  1876  she  details 
one  of  the  murders  typical  of  the  Reconstruction  period. 


34 


Martha  Schofield. 

/ 

An  old  man,  deaf,  and  dumb,  who  bad  never  spoken 
a word  or  beard  a sound  in  all  bis  seventy  years  of  life 
sought  protection  and  refuge  in  the  Schofield  home.  He 
bad  scarcely  entered  the  bouse  before  an  armed  body  of 
men  arrived  and  demanded  that  the  old  dumb  ipan  re- 
veal the  biding  place  of  a certain  negro  whom  the  white 
people  bad  decided  it  was  necessary  to  put  to  death  for 
their  own  peace  and  security.  As  be  could  neither  bear 
nor  talk,  he  answered  the  threatening  attitude  of  the 
crowd  with  unintelligent  murmurs  and  gestures  and 
pointed  excitedly  at  Miss  Schofield.  She  explained  the 
condition  of  the  man  and  plead  earnestly  with  the  mob 
for  his  life,  but  to  no  purpose.  They  engaged  him  and 
stabbed  him  to  death  in  her  back  yard  as  he  undertook 
to  escape. 

The  same  number  of  this  newspaper  carries  instances 
and  gives  dates  of  other  atrocities  of  a most  depraved 
character.  All  this  served  to  stimulate  the  growing  an- 
imosity between  the  whites,  who  regarded  the  outrages 
being  committed  by  them  as  absolutely  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  civilization,  and  the  Northern  immi- 
grants or  carpet-baggers,  who  through  the  Negro  vote 
were  in  power  and  held  all  of  the  important  offices  of 
the  County  and  State.  Many  of  these  disgraced  with 
shame  for  the  time  being  the  offices  held  for  enriching 
themselves  and  impoverishing  the  already  impoverished 
and  well-nigh  destitute  country. 

Martha  Schofield’s  activities  in  broad-casting  stories 
of  these  hideous  outrages  and  appealing  for  the  contin- 
uance of  the  reign  of  the  military  authorities  in  South 
Carolina  as  the  only  means  of  making  life  at  all  safe 
and  possible  under  the  circumstances,  drew  to  her  the 
contempt  and  hatred  of  the  white  people,  who  of  all  the 
people  on  earth  were  best  suited  by  reason  of  their  posi- 
tion and  knowledge  to  assist  her  in  her  work. 

The  suspicion  and  distrust  she  worked  under  of  being 
in  sympathy  with  the  unscrupulous  and  corrupt  regime 
in  complete  control  of  local  affairs  was  manifestly  a ser- 
ious handicap.  No  one  more  clearly  than  she  realized 


Cause  of  Many  Riots. 


35 


the  disastrous  effect  their  corruption  would  have  on  her 
school,  her  work  and  the  colored  people.  She  knew  also 
that  it  meant  defeat,  in  the  South  at  least,  of  the  great 
party  whose  triumph  in  the  cause  of  freedom  had 
made  it  possible  for  the  first  time  in  American  history 
to  test  the  possibility  of  elevating  a lowly  and  much  ab- 
horred race.  These  influences  weighed  heavily  upon 
her  heart,  and  but  for  the  courage  and  sternness  of  her 
nature,  which  seemed  never  to  be  at  its  best  except  when 
acutely  vexed  and  infinitely  tried,  would  have  resulted 
in  her  voluntarily  withdrawing  from  the  self-imposed 
task  almost  in  its  beginning. 

The  author  shall  never' forget  but  she  will  always  re- 
member and  value  her  most  priceless  treasure,  the  ten- 
der religious  emotion  which  the  happenings  of  these 
times  provoked.  They  were  felt  keenly  at  the  morning 
service  of  the  Schofield  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute 
during  her  first  year  at  this  institution.  How  fondly 
does  she  recall  now  as  if  the  voices  of  angels,  whose 
voices  of  three  decades  ago  as  the  whole  school  would 
sing  those  comforting  old  plantation  hymns,  “Steal 
Away,  Steal  Away  to  Jesus,”  and  “Love,  Come  a Twink- 
ling Down.” 

The  joy,  the  emotion  and  inspiration  which  is  felt  at 
the  moment  of  writing  these  lines,  over  the  probability 
of  a similar  joy  in  heaven,  in  the  heart  of  her  who  had 
the  heroic  courage  and  the  splendid  manhood  to  risk  her 
life  in  the  unselfish  and  holy  cause  of  implanting  in  the 
Negro  mind  and  soul  that  which  is  beautiful,  noble  and 
sentimental,  is  unbounded. 

The  reflection  that  large  numbers  of  her  fellow-citi- 
zens now  rejoice  with  her,  and  the  prediction  that  others 
-who  do  not  now  do  so  will  later  on,  gives  her  likewise 
an  even  greater  measure  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  which 
all  owe  to  the  mother  of  the  movement  for  the  courage 
to  continue  the  work  for  the  uplift  of  the  Negro  even  at 
the  peril  of  her  life. 

The  work  of  Miss  Schofield  was  made  doubly  more 
perilous  each  day  by  the  misrule  of  the  imported  rulers 


36 


Martha  Schofield. 


of  State.  For  these  she  had,  instead  of  sympathy,  an 
unbridled  contempt,  and  never  failed  to  express  that 
contempt,  whenever  possible.  But  the  white  people 
would  not  condescend  to  hear  her  talk,  much  less  be- 
lieve anything  which  she  might  say.  Besides  their  pre- 
diction that  deplorable  conditions  would  follow  the  rule 
of  any  Yankee,  no  matter  whether  he  was  a Scott,  a 
Moses,  or  a Chamberlain,  must  not  be  discounted  by  the 
substitution  of  honest  men  from  the  North.  The  more 
corrupt  a Republican  was  the  better  he  served  to  prove 
the  contention  of  the  Southerners  that  only  Democrats 
could  be  safely  trusted  with  power. 

The  dishonest,  corrupt  and  unscrupulous  officials  in 
authority  were  equally  as  energetic  in  protecting  their 
offices  from  capture  by  good  men,  by  countenancing,  if 
not  actually  encouraging,  a spirit  of  lawlessness.  Gov- 
ernor Jenkins,  the  Republican  Governor  of  Alabama, 
was  quoted  as  saying  that  he  would  like  to  have  a few 
colored  men  killed  every  week  or  so,  in  order  to  provide 
the  semblance  of  truth  for  his  libels  that  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  Radicals  in  power  was  the  only  salvation 
of  the  colored  people.  His  work  and  talk,  typical  of 
that  of  others,  served  to  frighten  good  men  away  and 
keep  Jenkins  and  his  kind  in  authority.  And  all  this 
time  Martha  Schofield  and  her  little  band  of  Negroes, 
whom  she  was  endeavoring  to  lead  out  of  the  depths  of 
darkness,  despair  and  crime  into  the  light  of  reason, 
courage,  and  industry  were  daily  praying  for  their  ene- 
mies, for  the  deliverance  of  men  of  all  races  from  the  fet- 
ters of  greed,  avarice  and  revenge,  which  was  responsi- 
ble for  the  suffering  and  misery  to  be  seen  on  every  hand. 
They  were  praying  not  only,  they  were  working  also, 
with  all  their  little  might,  that  the  things  for  which 
they  prayed  might  come  to  pass.  This  school,  of  all 
others  which  the  author  ever  attended,  preached,  if  it 
preached  anything  at  all,  that  God  must  never  be  ex- 
pected to  answer  prayers  unsupported  by  works. 

At  one  of  the  great  political  rallies  held  in  Aiken  by 
the  Democratic  Party  a few  years  before  the  succession 


Cause  of  Many  Riots. 


37 


of  Hampton  to  the  Governorship  one  of  the  orators  of 
the  day  said  that  the  treasury  of  South  Carolina  had 
been  so  gutted  by  the  thieves  iii  power  that  nothing  was 
left  to  steal  except  the  power  to  stop  the  further  en- 
lightenment of  the  fool  ‘nigger.’  He  added  also,  that 
he  wanted  a change  in  the  government  in  order  to  make 
a South  Carolina  bond  equally  as  good  on  the  market 
as  a “nigger’s  note.” 

The  legislatures  of  the  Southern  States  authorized 
the  increase  of  the  public  debt  from  $87,000,000  to 
$300,000,000.  They  held  the  right  to  declare  martial 
law  in  every  county  whenever  deemed  advisable,  to  ar- 
rest and  try  any  person  by  court  martial  and  had  at 
their  disposal  the  right  to  raise  regiments  of  soldiers, 
one  of  Negroes  and  one  of  whites,  to  execute  their  sev- 
eral wills.  Under  these  circumstances  it  does  seem  that 
security  of  life,  liberty  and  even  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness and  the  accumulation  of  property  should  have  gone 
on  undisturbed  by  anything  which  the  aristocrats  and 
poor  whites  might  have  done,  in  opposition  to  the  desid- 
eratum so  devoutly  wished  for  by  the  authorities  in 
power. 

But  history  records  that  the  authorities  with  unlim- 
ited power  signally  failed  in  asserting  any  power  at  all ; 
that  the  party  in  power  with  unlimited  means  at  its  com- 
mand for  accomplishing  great  undertakings  of  public 
enterprise  accomplished  only  the  complete  demoraliza- 
tion of  the  whole  South,  financially  and  morally. 

After  sitting  a whole  year  the  legislature  of  Alabama 
at  the  end  of  its  session  passed  a bill  authorizing  the  en- 
dorsement of  the  State’s  credit,  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
couraging the  development  of  railway  construction  and 
transportation  to  the  extent  of  $16,000  per  mile.  Only 
one  road  was  completed.  Five  were  built  a few  miles 
and  abandoned.  Through  the  issue  of  bonds  for  one 
purpose  or  another,  as  for  instance,  the  building  of  rail- 
roads organized  and  owned  principally  by  the  men  vot- 
ing the  bonds,  the  public  treasury  was  fleeced  to  the  lim- 


38 


Martha  Schofield. 


it.  This,  combined  with  the  stupidity,  cowardliness  and 
corruption  of  the  military  authorities  hastened  on  the 
hurried  collapse  of  organized  government  and  substitu- 
ted in  its  place  a reign  of  terror  and  lawlessness  with- 
out a parallel  in  Southern  history. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Hamburg  and  Ellenton  Riots. 

Several  riots  and  some  of  as  foul  murders  as  ever  dis- 
graced the  lives  of  men  attended  the  uprisings  around 
Aiken. 

Among  the  most  important  of  these  were  the  Ham- 
burg, the  Ellenton  and  Ned  Tennant  riots,  all  occurring 
within  a few  miles  of  Miss  Schofield’s  school. 

The  Hamburg  riot  occurred  in  July,  1876,  and  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  most  tragic  events,  as  it  was  one  of  the 
nicest  disastrous  occurrences  for  the  Negro  race  and  the 
Republican  Party  of  the  South  that  occurred  during  the 
entire  period  of  Reconstruction.  Seven  Negroes  and 
one  white  man  were  killed  out-right,  while  one  white 
man  and  two  Negroes  were  seriously  wounded. 

^ This  sounded  the  alarm  of  danger  in  the  South  for  the 
experiment  being  made  with  the  Negro  for  self-govern- 
ment and  urged  immediate  action  by  Congress  for  the 
protection  of  its  policy  there,  if  not  its  newly  made  citi- 
zens who  at  the  first  challenge  had  shown  conclusively 
the  incapacity  to  protect  themselves. 

The  riot  was  precipitated  by  two  young  white  men, 
Henry  Getzen  and  Thomas  Butler,  who  were  driving 
through  Hamburg  on  the  return  from  Georgia  to  their 
homes  in  South  Carolina,  just  across  the  State  line  in 
the  vicinity  of  Augusta.  At  the  time  a company  of  one 
hundred  Negro  men  in  command  of  Captain  Dock 
Adams  was  drilling  on  the  principal  street  of  the  town 
of  Hamburg,  and  a.  large  proportion  of  the  Negro 
population,  as  usual,  was  out  admiring  the  spec- 
tacular performance.  It  is  claimed  by  the  white 
men  that  the  cornpan}'  was  drilling  “company  front” 
and  so  filled  the  street  from  side-walk  to  side-walk, 
whiuh  permitted  them  no  room  to  pass;  and  that 
Captain  Adams  instead  of  ordering  his  troops  to 
fall  into  “Column  fours”  or  “column  platoons,”  he  order- 
ed them  to  “charge,”  at  which  command,  Butler,  a son 
of  Mr.  Robert  Butler,  shouted  from  his  seat  in  the 


40 


Martha  Schofield. 


buggy,  with  revolver  drawn,  that  he  would  shoot  to  death 
the  first  man  that  stuck  a bayonet  in  the  horse.  With  a 
hundred  bayonets  gleaming  in  the  sun  and  several  hun- 
dred of  the  colored  race  looking  on,  the  Negroes  knew 
the  butchery  of  the  whites  was  an  easy  matter,  but  being 
desirous  of  avoiding  a conflict  which  they  knew  only  too 
well  was  instigated  at  that  time  for  the  purpose  of  arous- 
ing the  already  ovemenraged  whites  to  an  action  that 
would  later  on  mean  either  the  annihilation  of  them- 
selves or  their  old  masters  and  mistresses,  whom  some 
of  them  still  loved  and  admired  with  the  same  affection 
and  admiration  that  caused  most  of  them  throughout 
the  battle  for  their  freedom  to  remain  at  the  fire-side  and 
defend  the  homes  of  those  out  in  a war  fought  to  con- 
tinue them  in  a state  of  bondage,  the  Captain  ordered 
a halt  and  opened  the  ranks  so  that  the  buggy  could  pass. 
Completing  the  exercises,  the  soldiers  were  marched  to 
their  armory  and  dismissed.  Adams  then  went,  as  was 
his  right  to  do,  to  a Justice  of  the  Peace,  “General’’ 
Prince  Rivers,  a Negro,  an  ex-Union  Soldier,  commander 
of  the  Negro  militia,  the  State  Senator  from  Aiken 
County  in  the  General  Assembly  and  also  the  Trial  Jus- 
tice for  his  dristrict,  and  swore  out  warrants  for  Getzen 
and  Butler,  charging  them  with  interfering  with  his 
company  at  drill. 

Hearing  of  this,  Butler  hurried  home  and  informed  his 
father  of  what  had  happened,  who  went  in  haste  to  the 
same  Trial  Justice  and  secured  a warrant  for  Adams  for 
obstructing  the  highway.  News  of  the  “cowing’’  of  the 
Negro  militia  and  the  subsequent  issuance  of  warrants 
for  the  captain  of  the  company  and  the  white  men  and 
the  setting  of  the  trials  of  each  for  a hearing  was  spread 
all  over  the  surrounding  country  in  a very  short  time, 
and  excitement  was  intense  on  both  sides  as  to  what  the 
outcome  would  be. 

Without  quoting  the  exact  words  of  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  rioters  who  was  the  leader  in  the  three  great 
riots,  the  settled  purpose  of  the  whites  was  the  seizure  of 
the  first  opportunity  that  might  be  made  by  the  Negroes 


Hamburg  and  Ellenton  Riots. 


41 


to  provoke  a riot  and  demonstrate  to  tlie  latter  through 
blood-shed  the  utter  hopelessness  of  the  attempt  of  the 
Negro  to  rule  and  so  rid  South  Carolina  of  the  domina- 
tion of  Negro  and  carpet-bag  government.  For  the  ap- 
proaching trial  elaborate  preparations  had  been  made 
by  the  whites,  including  the  employment  of  General  M. 
C.  Butler  for  the  defense  of  Thomas  Butler  and  Henry 
(tetzen  and  the  prosecution  of  Adams,  and  the  calling 
together  of  all  members  of  the  Sweet  Water  Sabre  Club, 
an  organization  of  the  leading  white  men  of  Edgefield 
and  Aiken  Counties  for  the  destruction  of  the  Negro  re- 
gime locally  and  for  use  in  overthrowing  the  State  gov- 
ernment and  for  the  purpose  of  trampling  under  foot  the 
laws  passed  by  Congress,  intended  to  give  the  Negro 
equal  power  with  the  white  in  the  government  of  the 
State.  Members  of  this  club  were  not  only  instructed  to 
attend  the  trial  for  the  protection  of  the  two  young  white 
men,  but  were  ordered  to  be  present  to  see  to  it  that  if 
no  opportunity  offered  itself  to  provoke  a riot,  then  they 
were  to  create  one,  anyhow.  They  were  to  go  un-uni- 
formed  and  armed  with  pistols  only,  but  were  to  have 
their  rifles  near  at  hand  and  be  ready  at  a moment’s  no- 
tice to  engage  the  blacks  in  deadly  combat  under  their 
own  vine  and  fig  tree. 

Emboldened  by  the  apparent  cowardliness  of  the  Ne- 
groes to  attack  Getzen  and  Butler  a few  days  before, 
members  of  the  club  expressed  much  fear  that  the  Ne- 
groes would  be  bold  enough  to  show  resentment  to 
any  indignity  which  they  might  offer,  and  so  would 
bring  to  naught  the  various  plans  and  schemes  previous- 
ly formulated  to  engage  them  in  battle.  News  of  their 
presence  in  Hamburg  and  of  their  object  had  preceeded 
their  arrival,  and  the  justice  ordered  the  hearing  post- 
poned to  a later  day,  when  the  orderly  trial  of  the  case 
could  be  assured  by  the  protection  of  additional  militia- 
men. The  whites  were  quick  to  see  the  advantage  which 
the  Negroes  would  obtain  by  delay  and  promptly  decided 
to  begin  the  attack  at  once. 

At  about  five  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  just  as  Adams 


42 


Martha  Schofield. 


and  his  company  had  assembled  in  their  armory,  General 
M.  C.  Bntler  sent  the  captain  word  that  his  militia  w\th 
guns  had  shown  that  they  were  a menace  to  the  peace 
and  good  order  of  the  communty  and  demanded  of  him 
the  surrender  of  his  guns,  informing  him  at  the  same 
time  that  the  whites  were  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  the 
political  rule  of  the  Negro  and  the  carpet-bagger  or  die 
in  the  attempt  that  very  day.  With  his  prompt  and  pre- 
emptory  refusal  to  surrender,  Adams  also  sent  defiance 
to  the  white  men.  This  boldness  somewhat  dismayed 
the  latter  as  they  had  with  them  five  rifles  only.  The 
remainder  of  their  armament  consisted  of  pistols  and 
shot-gum-  making  the  effectiveness  of  the  attacking 
party  very  inferior  in  the  matter  of  weapons  as  in  num- 
bers. But  this  inefficiency  was  more  than  offset  by  the 
difference  in  training  of  the  opposing  parties,  by  the  in- 
heritance of  many  of  the  whites  of  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  j^ears  of  skill  in  the  use  of  the  weapons  of  war. 
while  the  only  training  ever  given  the  Negro  had  been 
one  of  fear.  This  had  been  his  by  inheritance  just  as  the 
white  race  had  inherited  its  contempt  of  fear.  It  is  as 
batural  for  some  of  the  Negroes  to  show  cowardliness  as 
it  is  for  some  of  the  whites  to  show  bravery,  and  this 
difference  in  the  qualities  of  the  two  races  must  remain 
relative  in  proportion  to  the  intellectual  and  moral 
development  of  each  race. 

Besides,  think  who  they  were  fighting — why,  their  old 
masters  and  their  sons,  whom  some  of  the  Negro  soldiers 
no  doubt,  had  risked  their  lives  in  previous  emergencies 
to  protect  and  defend  from  danger. 

Could  it  be  expected,  under  the  circumstances,  that 
their  aim  would  prove  unerring?  Wasn't  it  rather  to  be 
expected  at  t-lje  beginning  that  the  shots  which  the  poor, 
illiterate  Negroes  fired  would  fall  wide  of  the  mark,  just 
as  they  did? 

All  admit  now,  even  the  intelligent  Negro  and  the 
radical  abolitionist,  that  the  arming  of  the  Negroes  be- 
fore first  teaching  them  the  use  of  weapons  was  a mis- 
take, but  this  would  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  ignor- 


Hamburg  and  Ellenton  Riots. 


43 


ant,  illiterate  white  race.  ’Tis  the  condition  of  the 
mind  that  makes  the  body  fit  or  unfit.  The  adder  is  not 
better  than  the  eel,  because  of  his  painted  skin,  nor  the 
blue-jay  any  better  than  the  wren  because  of  his  fine 
plumage,  as  the  Bard  of  Avon  well  expressed  it  when 
addressing  good  Kate  and  reminding  her  that  she  was 
none  the  worse  because  of  her  poor  furniture  and  mean 
array,  provided  her  mind  and  heart  were  perfect. 

The  Negro  has  arms  and  hands  as  strong  as  iron  bands 
and  with  these  he  can  punish  into  insensibility  the  men 
of  almost  any  race;  there  are  white  men  endowed  with 
equally  great  physical  powers  who  can,  like  the  Negro, 
subdue  others  not  so  powerful  in  animal  strength.  Each 
of  these  types  of  men  labor  in  the  fields  of  arduous  toil, 
neither  having  the  time  and,  in  most  cases,  lackipg  the 
intelligence  to  bathe  and  livy  a sanitary  life,  much  less 
educate  their  poor  brains.  For  this  reason  neither  are 
the  equal,  either  in  war  or  in  the  every  day  intellectual 
occupations  of  life,  of  the  men  trained  and  dexterously 
skilled  in  the  use  of  their  muscles  and  brains'.  The  psy- 
chological influence  of  the  men  of  education  over  the 
ignorant  and  illiterate  must  not  he  overlooked  neitherx 
in  any  attempt  to  account  for  the  tremendous  supremacy 
which  the  few  exercise  over  the  many. 

At  any  rate,  the  superiority  of  the  seventy  members  of 
the  Sweet  Water  Sabre  Club  over  the  one  hundred  mem- 
bers of  the  Negro  militia  was  amply  demonstrated  at 
Hamburg  on  July  8,  1876.  It  is  possible  that  the  Ne- 
groes, who  could  have  destroyed  the  entire  mob  in  a fev 
minutes  with  their  superior  equipment,  were  aware  of 
the  reinforcements  lying  in  wait  at  the  beck  and  call  of 
General  Butler,  and  so  retained  their  position  in  the 
armory  as  a means  of  protection  against  an  attack  by  an 
overwhelmingly  superior  force.  Certain  it  is,  that  from 
a vantage  point  of  view  the  inside  of  the  armory  was  no 
suitable  place  from  which  to  shoot.  The  soldiers  were 
compelled  to  shoot  from  below  the  windowsills,  which 
elevated  their  guns,  and  so  their  bullets,  except  the  one 
which  killed  Makie  Meriwether,  were  spent  in  vain.  At 


44 


Martha  Schofield. 


the  sound  of  the  first  firing  reinforcements  for  the  whites 
began  to  pour  into  Hamburg  by  the  hundreds,  and  no 
time  was  lost  in  obtaining  a piece  of  artillery  in  Augusta 
and  bringing  it  into  action.  Two  shots  from  this  de- 
structive machine  silenced  the  guns  Of  the  militia  and 
the  members  of  the  company  began  to  retire  as  secretly 
as  possible,  it  being  well  understood  by  all  that  the 
whites  would  give  nor  ask  any  quarter  in  the  orderly 
rules  of  warfare,  as  in  the  matter  of  capitulation  and 
terms  of  surrender.  The  knowledge  by  every  Negro  at 
the  beginning  of  this  historic  event  that  the  battle  meant 
death  to  everyone  captured  possibly  unnerved  every  sol- 
dier and  precipitated  the  demorilization  following  the 
advent  of  the  solitarj'-  field  piece  of  artillery.  Out  of  the 
forty  Negroes  captured  only  a few  belonged  to  the  mili- 
tia, the  members  of  which  the  mob  was  determined  to 
destroy  that  night,  but  as  most  of  these  had  escaped, 
then  it  was  decided  to  kill  anybody  in  reparation  for  tlie 
death  of  young  Meriwether.  So  a search  of  the  homes 
of  all  Negroes  and  some  of  the  whites  was  made,  includ- 
ing that  of  a Jew  named  Louis  Schiller,  who  was  friend- 
ly with  the  Negroes  and  had  through  their  votes,  under 
the  new  order  of  things,  obtained  and  held  the  office  of 
County  Auditor  of  Edgefield  County  before  the  creation 
of  Aiken  County.  It  was  decreed  that  Schiller  should 
be  put  to  death,  but  he  escaped  with  his  life  only  by 
climbing  through  a trap  door  leading  out  ou  the  roof  and 
hiding  himself  behind  a parapet  on  top  of  the  house.  All 
the  while  he  was  in  hearing  distance  of  the  curses  and 
execrations  heaped  upon  his  name  and  the  avowed  inten- 
tion of  the  mob  to  hang  him  sooner  or  later. 

Two,  among  the  forty  prisoners  held  under  guard 
while  the  searching  party  worked,  who  knew  that  their 
capture  meant  their  death,  attempted  to  escape  by  jump- 
ing over  a fence  witli  their  guards  looking  on  and  run- 
ning as  fast  as  their  legs  could  carry  them  in  hope  of 
reaching  a place  of  safety;  but  white  men  seemed  to  be 
everywhere,  and  although  one  of  them,  Jim  Cook,  the 
town  marshall,  did  escape  his  guards  he  was  shot  to 


Hamburg  and  Ellenton  Eiots. 


45 


death  by  bullets  from  a shot-gun  which  tore  in  his  head 
as  he  dashed  through  the  crowds.  The  other  had  been 
killed  by  the  guards  having  him  in  charge. 

Cook  was  supremely  hated  by  the  entire  white  popula- 
tion of  the  County,  more  so,  than  other  individuals  of 
his  race  on  account  of  his  activity  in  the  office  of  mar- 
shal, which  the  whites  charged  he  used  without  provoca- 
tion to  humiliate  and  degrade  them.  Over  his  death 
there  was  the  greatest  rejoicing  throughout  the  county 
among  the  whites. 

Being  unable  to  locate  any  more  Negroes,  General 
Butler  and  Colonel  A.  P.  Butler  concluded  that  all  work 
was  practically  finished  and  quietly  departed  for  their 
homes.  They  did  not  leave  any  orders  and  the  members 
of  the  mob  began  to  disperse  in  perceptibly  large  num- 
bers. But  the  thirst  for  blood  born  of  that  insatiable 
desire  to  torture,  to  torment  as  in  the  fiery  pit,  and  to 
murder  implanted  in  the  heart  of  individuals,  half-ani- 
mal and  the  sport  of  impulse,  whim  and  conceit,  until  re- 
lieved by  the  tameness  and  intelligence  which  time  and 
education  alone  can  give,  had  not  yet  been  satisfied,  al- 
though for  one  life  taken  by  the  militia  they  had  taken 
two. 

These  deluded  children  of  the  white  men  suffering 
with  the  same  malady,  ignorance,  with  which  the  child- 
ren of  the  blacks  were  more  seriously  suffering,  but 
recognizing  the  advanage  which  their  superiority  of 
numbers  now  gave  them,  reasoned  that  it  was  a dear 
piece  of  work  to  exchange  one  of  their  number  for  only 
two  Negroes.  It  was  argued  that  a story  like  that  would 
not  appease  the  popular  clamor  that  now  would  rise  like 
a heavy  mist  from  the  sea  and  gain  the  momentum  of  a 
cyclone.  So  it  was  solemnly  agreed  that,  while  the 
annihilation  of  the  entire  Negro  population  of  the  town 
of  Hamburg  would  not  atone  for  the  death  of  Meri- 
wether, the  members  of  the  mob  would  conteut  them- 
selves for  that  night,  at  least,  with  the  assassination  of 
only  the  meanest  characters  among  the  remaining  num- 
ber of  prisoners  held.  The  duty  of  designating  these 


46 


Martha  Schofield. 


“meanest”  characters,  and  those  most  deserving  of 
death,  fell  to  the  lot  of  Henry  Getzen,  one  of  the  young 
men  who  was  the  original  cause  of  the  riot  and  whose 
residence  in  the  vicinity  of  Hamburg  brought  him  into 
the  closest  contact  with  the  Negro  population  and  so 
prepared  him  fully  for  the  duty  of  passing  judgment 
upon  the  destiny  of  the  prisoners. 

His  hands,  red  with  the  blood  from  the  wounds  that 
had  killed  Mackie  Meriwether  and  his  heart  beating  in 
unison  with  his  rankling  mind  at  thought  of  the  imagi- 
nary injustices  already  done,  or  to  be  done,  by  the  Negro, 
the  state  of  his  feelings  made  him  anything  else  but  fit 
to  pass  upon  the  lives  of  the  men  uow  at  stake,  even 
had  he  been  an  honest  man  and  inspired  by  high  and 
lofty  ideals  as  it  must  be  conceded  many  of  the  whites 
in  the  Hamburg  riot  were. 

The  purpose  by  the  whites  was  to  use  this  riot  to 
strike  terror  in  the  heart  of  the  Negroes  and  intimidate 
them,  then  and  there  and  for  all  time,  in  their  aspira- 
tions for  political  as  well  as  social  advancement. 

At  that  time,  as  at  this  time,  in  the  case  of  a large  ele- 
ment of  the  white  population,  it  is  undeniable  that  it  is 
against  their  express  desire  that  encouragement  for  im- 
provement of  the  Negro  be  given  him.  Witness,  the 
laws  passed  by  the  several  Legislatures  as  late  as  1916 
in  discrimination  of  him,  one  of  which  forbids  the  em- 
ployment of  truckmen  in  the  cotton  mills  along  with 
other  employees  whose  skin  is  white.  Several  bills  have 
been  introduced  for  passage  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
South  Carolina  to  make  the  instruction  of  Negroes  by 
whites  a violation  of  the  law,  but  up  to  this  date,  1916, 
all  measures  for  the  purpose  have  failed  of  enactment. 

When  such  laws  finally  become  effective  it  may  be  pro- 
posed by  the  Negroes  to  restrict  the  practice  of  medicine 
by  blacks  and  whites  to  the  respective  races  to  which 
each  belongs.  Likewise  measures  may  be  devised  and 
enacted  into  law,  which  will  make  it  unlawful  for  white 
salespeople  to  wait  upon  Negroes  in  the  stores,  or  for 
Negroes  to  wait  upon  whites  as  sales  clerks. 


Hamburg  and  Ellexton  Riots. 


47 


The  constitutionality  of  the  proposed  law  relating  to 
the  restriction  of  Negro  teachers  only  in  Negro  schools 
is  thought  by  some  lawyers  to  be  as  applicable  to  physi- 
cians and  clerks  as  to  teachers. 

The  same  racial  prejudice  which  showed  its  specter- 
head  in  domoniac  form  in  the  case  of  the  burning  at  the 
stake  of  two  Negroes  near  the  town  of  Statesboro,  Geor- 
gia, in  the  year  1905,  and  the  previous  death  by  fire  at 
the  stake  near  Newman,  Georgia,  in  1895  of  another 
was  the  moving  spirit  that  actuated  the  mob  and  guided 
the  hearts  and  hands  of  Henry  Getzen  and  his  band  at 
Hamburg,  twenty  and  thirty  years  before.  As  fast  as 
Getzen  could  select  from  among  the  prisoners  those  he 
considered  most  worthy  of  death,  they  were  taken  out  in 
the  streets,  before  the  eyes  of  their  wives  and  children 
and  shot  to  death,  in  the  light  of  a brilliant  moon  reflect- 
ing the  love  of  heaven,  but  no  wavering  image  of  that 
love  was  anywhere  to  be  found  in  Hamburg  that  night. 
God  and  the  angels  had  deserted  it  without  any  apparent 
concern  for  the  safety  of  the  helpless  blacks. 

When  the  firing  ceased  the  mob's  victims,  numbering 
seven  with  the  two  who  previously  had  been  killed,  were 
piled  side  by  side  in  the  most  conspecious  part  of  the 
town,  and  presented  a grewsome  sight,  lying  stark,  stiff 
and  cold,  when  the  Negroes  who  had  fled  from  the  town 
returned  to  their  homes  on  Sunday  morning  following. 

Those  of  the  prisoners  who  were  spared,  about  twen- 
ty-eight in  all,  were  given  permission  to  leave  and  told 
to  go  with  all  speed  at  their  command  which  they  were 
none  too  slow  about  doing.  Volley  after  volley  was 
fired  after  them,  over  their  heads  with  no  intention  to 
hit  or  injure  them. 

Had  it  been  known  before  they  were  allowed  to  go 
that  one  of  the  supposed  dead  was  only  assuming  death 
the  number  freed  would  have  been  reduced  to  twenty- 
seven  instead  of  twenty-eight,  for  it  was  the  decision  of 
the  mob  that  nothing  less  than  eight  lives  should  be 
taken  in  retaliation  for  the  life  of  young  Meriwether. 
Pompey  Curry,  who  was  selected  among  those  to  be  shot 


48 


Martha  Schofield. 


fell  dead  at  the  first  report  of  the  guns  and  remained 
motionless  and  apparently  breathless  throughout  the  ex- 
amination of  the  bodies  and  their  disposal  by  the  mob 
until  the  whites  had  all  gone  home,  when  he  cradled 
through  the  high  weeds  which  were  near  by  and  made 
his  escape  in  the  woods  with  only  a slight  wound  in  his 
leg.  Among  all  the  witnesses  for  the  government  in  the 
prosecution  of  members  of  the  mob  which  folio wd  the 
conflict,  none  was  of  the  importance  of  “Pompey  Curry'’ 
as  he  knew  by  name  a large  number  of  the  men  and  could 
point  them  out  on  sight.  He  discharged  his  duty  as  a 
witness  in  the  celebrated  trial,  but  a short  time  after- 
ward he  suddenly  disappeared  and  no  one  knows  or  ap- 
pears to  know  whatever  became  of  him. 

The  success  of  the  mob  in  thus  attacking  and  annihil- 
ating a company  of  the  government’s  own  soldiers  and 
ruthlessly  putting  to  death  peaceable  citizens  in  defi- 
ance of  the  law,  without  judge  or  jury,  gave  the  great- 
est encouragement  to  the  hopes  of  the  whites.  It  was 
really  of  more  far-reaching  consequences  in  influencing 
their  lives  and  fortunes  than  any  incident  ever  occur- 
ring before  or  since  in  the  history  of  South  Carolina. 

The  direct  opposite  effect  which  it  had  upon  the  Ne- 
gro and  upon  the  people  of  the  North,  where  it  occas- 
ioned the  bitterest  comment,  resulted  in  Conress  ap- 
pointing an  investigation  committee  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  white  Union  soldiers  to  fill  the  places  made  va- 
cant by  the  resignation  of  the  Negroes  from  the  ranks. 
Their  resignation  resulted  from  the  fear  they  had  of  the 
whites  and  sincere  desire  to  work  in  the  interest  of  peace. 
They  were  also  encouraged  to  resign  by  such  men  as 
Chamberlain,  whose  record  as  Governor,  although 
placed  in  power  by  the  votes  of  Negroes,  is  one  of  the 
most  honorable  of  any  Governor  who  ever  filled  the 
office  of  Chief  Executive. 

This  tragic  episode  took  from  the  Negro  his  last  hope 
of  being  able  to  control  the  elections  which  followed  in 
the  fall.  It  gave  to  the  whites  all  the  freedom  they  de- 
sired to  follow  the  doctrine  of  General  Mart  Gary  to 


Hamburg  and  Ellenton  Riots. 


49 


vote  early  and  often.  By  doing  so,  they  changed  a Re- 
publican majority  in  Edgefield  County  of  2300  to  a 
Democratic  majority  of  almost  4,000 ! 

As  an  example  of  the  perfect  contempt  with  which 
Gary  and  his  mobs  treated  the  authority  of  not  only  the 
officials  of  the  County  but  of  the  State  may  be  cited  his 
refusal  to  obey  General  Ruger’s  orders  to  have  the  court 
house  at  Edgefield  vacated  by  the  whites.  At  this  time 
he  openly  defied  the  military  power  of  both  the  State 
and  National  government  when  he  with  his  Red  Shirt 
regiment,  which  he  organized,  captured  the  Chamber- 
lain  meeting  on  August  12,  1876.  In  a firey  speech  to 
the  Negroes  at  that  time  he  announced  in  no  unmistaka- 
ble terms  that  no  power  above  or  below  earth  was  suffici- 
ent to  prevent  the  success  of  the  Democratic  Party  at 
the  polls  that  year  nor  in  any  succeeding  year.  He  told 
the  white  men  that  an  ounce  of  “Fearnot”  was  worth  a 
ton  of  “Persuasion”  and  exhorted  them  to  put  the  bal- 
lots in  the  boxes  and  he  would  see  that  every  one  was 
i counted. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Great  Judicial  Farce. 

Tlie  reign  of  lawlessness  resulting  in  tlie  torture  and 
wanton  murder  of  tlie  blacks  following  the  Hamburg 
riot  went  unrestrained  in  spite  of  the  presence  of  white 
Union  soldiers  stationed  in  those  sections  where  the 
greatest  outrages  occurred  after  the  Negro  troops  had 
been  partly  mustered  out. 

The  reason  for  this  was  not  want  of  ample  power  close 
at  hand  for  the  enforcement  of  law  and  order  and  res- 
pect for  the  rights  of  every  citizen,  white  and  black 
alike ; but  inefficiency  or  culpable  neglect  on  the  part 
of  the  military  authorities  to  assert  any  authority  at 
all.  Through  the  leadership  of  Gary  and  Butler  and 
some  others,  including  Hon.  B.  R.  Tillman,  Luther  Ran- 
som and  George  W.  Croft,  a prominent  citizen  of  Aiken, 
the  whites  were  allowed  to  run  rough-shod  over  the 
Northern  white  soldiers  just  as  they  had  succeeded  pre- 
viously in  intimidating  and  “cowing”  the  Negro  militia. 

With  the  crazed  white  people  swearing  vengeance 
against  every  northern  man  or  woman  known  to  be  in 
sympathy  with  the  movement  for  the  improvement  of 
the  Negro  race,  and  the  Negro  and  white  soldiers  hav- 
ing demonstrated  such  poor  ability  or  better  stated, 
none  at  all,  in  securing  any  decent  respect  for  them  and 
their  work,  the  condition  of  Martha  Schofield’s  school 
at  this  period  is  better  imagined  than  described.  Lo- 
cated in  the  thick  of  the  great  white  heat  of  the  conflict 
the  principal  and  students  were  subjected  to  insults  and 
indignities  that  could  be  committed  with  impunity  in 
times  of  great  peril  only.  A few  nights  before  the  trial 
at  Aiken  for  the  taking  of  testimony  in  the  case  of  the 
Hamburg  rioters  a number  of  armed  men  entered  the 
yard  and  some  of  them  occupied  the  porch  of  Miss  Scho- 
field’s home.  Taking  a whip  in  her  hand  she  went  out 
on  the  porch  with  a light  in  the  other  hand  and  inquired 
as  politely  and  calmly  as  she  possibly  could,  what  the 
gentlemen  would  have,  and  if  she  could  do  anything  for 


Great  Judicial  Farce. 


51 


them.  No  one  made  any  reply  but  all  immediately 
arose  and  departed  in  an  orderly  and  quiet  manner. 

The  tact,  the  power  and  magnetism  with  which  this 
woman  met  and  disarmed  her  enemies  were  the  same 
forces  wielded  by  her  in  drawing  to  herself  the  great 
following  at  the  North  so  necessary  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  her  great  educational  mission  in  the  South. 
Afterwards  it  served  in  attracting  to  her  the  help  of 
those  who  only  a few  years  before  sought  to  do  her  in- 
jury only.  With  her  powers  of  mind  and  heart,  enrich- 
ed and  mellowed  by  a Christian  spirit  that  plainly  in- 
dicated that  she  held  malice  for  none,  but  charity  for 
all,  she  won  the  love,  respect  and  admiration  of  every- 
body who  came  under  her  influence. 

. The  absolute  fearlessness  and  splendid  self  control 
maintained  by  her  during  the  rioting  in  Aiken  prelimi- 
nary to  that  great  Judicial  farce,  the  trial  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  mob  at  Hamburg,  is  said  by  those  who  wit- 
nessed it  with  her  as  having  been  courageous,  if  not  he- 
roic. Her  conduct  on  this  occasion  modulated  by  such 
propriety  as  required  the  exercise  of  the  greatest  com- 
mon sense,  shows  her  to  have  been  well  fitted  for  leader- 
ship in  a time  of  great  unrest  and  supreme  anxiety. 

Hundreds  of  excited  Negroes  on  this  eventful  occa- 
sion flocked  to  her  like  biddies  to  the  mother  hen  in  time 
of  danger.  Her  school  was  a veritable  shelter  in  the 
time  of  storm  when  large  bodies  of  white  men  on  horses 
dressed  in  white  uniforms  decorated  in  red,  with  crosses 
and  skeleton  heads  approached  and  rode  through  the 
town.  The  leader  riding  in  front  carried  a huge  banner 
made  of  a shirt  large  enough  for  Goliath.  It  was 
spotted  all  over  with  large  red  spots  indicative  of  pistol 
wounds.  On  either  side  was  placed  a Negro  dough-face 
ornamented  at  the  top  by  chignons.  This  banner  turned 
high  in  the  air,  round  and  round,  in  the  swift  ride 
through  Aiken  from  every  side  that  the  Negroes  looked, 
all  that  they  could  see  was  a bleeding,  grinning,  dying 
Negro. 

The  only  thought  among  them  was,  how  much  longer 


52 


Martha  Schofield. 


each  of  them  had  to  live,  and  so  they  rushed  in  multi- 
tudes to  Miss  Schofield  whose  interpretation  of  one  of 
the  inscriptions  on  the  banner  somewhat  allayed  their 
fears  and  restored  quiet  among  them. 

One  of  the  inscriptions  said:  “Awake,  Arise  or  Be 

Forever  Fallen.”  The  other  contained  this:  “None  but 
the  Guilty  Need  Fear.” 

Among  the  excited  Negroes  were  old  men,  ex-slaves, 
and  young,  strong,  manly  fellows;  but  these,  along  with 
the  weeping  and  moaning  women  and  crying,  bellowing 
children,  rushed  to  the  grounds  and  buildings  of  the 
Schofield  school,  all  quaking  with  fear,  one  old  fellow, 
exclaiming,  “Lawd,  God-er  mi’ty,  I sho  cant  stan  dis!” 

And  all  the  while  this  extravagant  defiance  of  the  po- 
lice power  of  the  city  and  military  authority  of  the 
United  States  was  happening,  great  bodies  of  the  gov- 
government’s  own  soldiers  were  standing  idly  by  and 
looking  on ! The  impotency  of  the  whites  in  uniform  had 
brought  the  same  disgrace  to  the  flag  with  which  the 
Negro  militia  besmirched  it  at  Hamburg. 

The  white  Union  troops  cheered  the  marauding  mob, 
and  even  formed  in  line  and  marched  to  the  court  house 
with  them,  where  the  rioters,  or  many  of  them,  were  to 
be  arrainged  on  the  charge  of  murder. 

The  company  was  afterwards  severely  reprimanded 
for  this  conduct,  and  while  they  never  again  set  up 
cheers  for  the  “Red  Shirts”  or  fell  in  ranks  with  them,  it 
was  common  knowledge  that  a ^cordial  relation  existed 
between  them  and  the  whites. 

Under  this  condition  of  affairs  it  should  not  have 
been  expected  that  anything  more  tharr  a ridiculous 
farce  could  have  been  made  of  the  court  hearing  given 
the  party  of  lynchers.  Besides,  the  Radicals  in  power  at 
the  State  Capitol  were  charged,  not  without  much  evi- 
dence to  support  the  charges  made,  with  corruption  of 
every  sort,  including  bold,  out-right  stealing  and  con- 
spiracy to  commit  murder,  and  were,  therefore,  in  no 
condition  to  throw  stones.  The  few  Negroes  intelligent 
enough  to  present  the  case  against  the  mob  at  the  bar 


Great  Judicial  Farce.  53 

of  justice  were  intimidated  alike  by  the  whites  of  the 
South  and  the  Radical  whites  of  the  North,  as  well  as  by 
the  action  of  the  military  authorities,  who  allowed  the 
brutalities  to  proceed  with  impunity  just  as  they  had 
gone  on  before  their  arrival  in  the  country. 

Although  the  evidence  at  this  mock  trial  was  suffici- 
ent to  convict  almost  any  man  indicted.of  murder  in  the 
first  degree,  the  kind  hearted  Judge  instead  of  remand- 
ing the  prisoners  to  jail,  admitted  them  to  bail  in  the 
sum  of  $2,000.  This,  it  is  believed,  was  done  through 
the  discovery  by  Judge  Maher  of  the  utter  hopelessness 
of  any  attempt  to  prosecute  the  cases  to  a successful 
conclusion.  Not  only  were  the  Negroes  intimidated, 
but  the  court  itself  fell  under  the  vice  of  this  baneful 
influence,  lying  like  a spectre,  between  justice  and  the 
freedom  of  the  culprits.  This  feature  of  the  case  is  made 
unique  by  the  granting  of  any  bail  at  all,  and  doubly 
so  by  the  smallness  of  the  sum  fixed.  It  becomes  a 
travesty  upon  justice,  if  there  was  ever  one,  when 
the  character  and  financial  responsibility  of  some  of  the 
men  signing  the  bonds  are  considered.  Chreighton  Ma- 
th env,  a man  who  did  not  own  ten  dollars  in  property 
in  all  the  world  was  accepted  as  surety  to  the  extent  of 
$20,000.00!  It  is  the  only  case  on  record  in  the  whole 
judicial  history  of  the  universe  where  prisoners  were 
allowed  to  go  on  the  bond  of  each  other.  One  of  the 
leaders  in  The  riot  who  delights  in  recounting  the  part 
he  played  in  the  murders  at  Hamburg  and  wha  was 
given  his  liberty  on  a spurious  bond  at  this  trial,  says 
that  the  performance  was  a perfunctory  and  laughable 
travesty  on  law,  but  that  the  action  was  necessary,  for 
if  the  attempt  to  put  any  of  them  in  jail  had  been  made 
every  official  in  the  court  house  and  town  obnoxious  to 
them  would  have  been  killed  and  they  would  all  have 
gone  to  Texas  or  some  other  hiding  place. 

If  the  judicial  outrage  at  Aiken  did  not  show  a cor- 
rupt collusion  between  the  whites  of  the  South  and  the 
white  Union  soldiers  sent  from  the  North,  certainly  the 
relations  of  the  Red  Shirts  and  Yankee  soldier  made 


54 


N 


Martha  Schofield. 


this  evident  a few  weeks  later  when  the  Ellenton  riot 
broke  out.  The  pent  up  prejudice  and  passion  lying 
dormant  in  the  heart  of  the  Negro  and  whites  for  ages 
broke  loose  in  all  its  fury  and  swept  the  whole  western 
section  of  South  Carolina  with  a fan  of  fire,  scattering 
desolation  and  ruin  wherever  it  touched.  The  possibili- 
ty of  the  outrages  committed  in  the  bloody  drama  of 
this  riot  is  inconceivable  except  upon  the  hypothesis 
that  a thorough  understanding  existed  between  the 
the  whites  of  the  South  and  the  soldiers  of  the  North. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  government  was  supported 
or  thought  it  was  supported,  by  the  best  soldiers  the 
world  had  ever  seen,  by  the  men  who  met  Lee  at  Gettys- 
burg and  Johnston  and  Hood  at  Atlanta,  Resaca  and 
Chickamauga,  and  also  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Ne- 
gro population  in  the  section  affected  out  numbered  the 
white  population  by  about  ten  to  one,  the  murder  of 
Negroes,  accompanied  by  a reign  of  terror  unapproach- 
ed by  any  in  history  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
one  attending  the  French  Revolution,  went  on  almost 
daily,  the  military  authorities  being  unable  or  possibly 
disinclined  to  afford  any  measure  of  relief. 

The  failure  of  the  government  to  meet  its  promises 
to  the  Negroes,  especially  those  made  by  many  unscrup- 
ulous imposters  who  immigrated  to  South  Carolina  and 
conspired  with  a,  number  of  native  born  white  sons, 
among  the  latter  ex-Governor  Moses,  to  obtain  control 
of  the  State  government  fell  not  so  heavily  upon  the 
spirits  of  the  leading,  thinking  colored  people  as  the 
failure  of  the  government  to  preserve  law  and  order  and 
insure  them  that  security  of  life  and  liberty  which  are 
indispensible  to  peace  and  happiness  and  essential  to 
the  accumulation  of  wealth.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable 
that  the  government’s  proclamation  to  the  Negroes  in- 
suring them  against  molestation  at  the  hands  of  their 
white  neighbors  was  one  of  the  contributory  causes  of 
the  Hamburg  riot  and  all  the  other  disturbances  that  so 
seriously  injured  the  Negro  and  the  whole  South.  But 
the  government  and  the  soldiers  in  blue  who  made  him 


Great  Judicial  Farce. 


55 


the  equal  of  his  master  and  the  white  people  among 
whom  he  lived  could  not  or  would  not  make  him  master 
of  the  situation  in  which  his  freedom  had  placed  him. 

That  distinctive  quality  of  the  Negro,  predominating 
his  character  more  prominently  than  any  other  trait,  of 
aspiring  to  authority,  while  a perfectly  laudable  ambi- 
tion, served  him  no  good  purpose  at  the  period  of  which 
this  is  written,  but  inflicted  on  him  serious  injury  be- 
cause of  both  the  untenableness  of  his  position  and  the 
inability  of  his  government  to  make  it  tenable. 

The  majority  of  the  educated  white  people  of  the 
South,  as  well  as  the  ignorant,  all  speak  out  and  say  in 
1916  what  they  asserted  in  1876 — that  God  made  them 
of  better  clay  than  He  made  colored  people  and  that 
they  will  shoot  Negroes  and  steal  their  votes  from  the 
ballot  boxes  just  as  long  as  murder  and  robbery  may  be 
necessary  to  maintain  their  hold  on  the  government, 
but  there  is  not  nearly  so  much  chance  of  them  being 
able  to  do  this  now  as  in  the  years  gone  by,  simply  be- 
cause of  the  preparation  of  the  Negro  for  the  ballot 
which  preparation  is  rapidly  making  him  not  only  fit  to 
vote  but  qualified  to  fill  the  position  in  which  he  once 
utterly  failed  for  want  of  efficiency.  Through  educa- 
tion lie  is  making  his  position,  both  as  a citizen  and  a 
voter  quite  tenable,  and  by  industry  is  spreading  an  in- 
fluence that  will  multiply  the  wealth  of  the  South,  in 
the  distribution  of  which  he  will  share  in  proportion  to 
his  intelligence,  industry  and  superiority  of  numbers. 

No  one  saw  more  clearly  than  Miss  Schofield  that  the 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  race  could  be  ac- 
complished through  education  only  and  the  disturbing 
effect  of  the  riot  on  her  work  gave  her  deep  concern  and 
great  anxiety.  She  had  been  in  the  South  at  the  time 
of  the  mock  trial  of  the  Hamburg  rioters  long  enough 
to  know  with  exactness  the  prejudice  and  bitterness  of 
the  whites  toward  the  cause  dearest  to  her  heart  and 
observed  at  close  range  each  and  every  move  made,  de- 
termined to  courageously  carry  forward  her  work  if  in 
doing  so  it  required  the  sacrifice  of  her  frail  little  body, 


56 


Martha  Schofield. 


\ • 

which  she  always  spoke  of  as  nothing  but  the  temporary 
residence  of  a transitory  soul  upon  which  she  was  de- 
pendent here  and  hereafter,  now  and  forevermore,  for 
all  earthly  and  eternal  happiness. 

No  one,  either  white  or  black,  came  under  her  influ- 
ence at  this  gloomy  period  without  being  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  divine  inspiration  that  apparently 
guided  her.  All  went  away  feeling  verily  that  any  harm 
to  that  woman  or  her  school  could  be  inflicted  only  at 
too  great  an  expense,  either  in  the  loss  of  all  self-respect 
or  in  remorse  of  conscience,  if  not  actual  conflict  in 
earnest,  with  the  authorities  at  Washington.  She  drove 
her  tormentors  away  with  kindness  and  kept  them  at  a 
safe  distance  with  the  philosophy  of  MacBeth,  which 
made  all  who  cared  to  do  her  an  injury  feel  that  in  mur- 
dering her  work  they  would  also  murder  their  own 
sleep  and  peace  both  here  on  earth  and  throughout  all 
eternity. 

Could  she  have  gained  an  audience  with  the  men  lit- 
erally butchering  the  colored  population  alive,  and  have 
spoken  to  them  of  the  enormity  of  their  sins,  it  is  possi- 
ble that  time  at  least,  would  have  been  given  the  poor 
distracted  Negroes  to  bury  their  dead.  But  time  for  ar- 
gument and  reason  was  a thing  of  the  past.  Bodies  lay 
for  a week  and  even  longer,  uncoffined  and  unknelled. 
A Negro  named  Bryant  who  was  killed  by  Captain 
Bush’s  mob,  near  Ellenton,  lay  by  the  roadside  from 
Saturday  evening  until  late  Monday  afternoon,  when  a 
few  brave  colored  men  aroused  sufficient  courage  to  un- 
dertake to  bury  it.  These  had  it  in  a pine  box  of  cheap 
manufacture,  just  as  the  unhappy  man  had  fallen,  with- 
out a funeral  robe  or  garment,  in  everyday  old  working 
clothes,  perhaps  all  the  clothes  the  poor  fellow  had  in 
the  world,  and  were  on  the  way  to  a newly  made  hole 
in  the  ground  near  by,  to  lay  it  away  from  the  mutilat- 
ing hand  of  the  maurauders  as  well  as  to  protect  it  from 
the  pinions  of  the  vultures  on  wings  above,  when  a band 
of  Red  Shirts  appeared  on  the  scene  and  forced  them  to 
flee  for  their  lives,  leaving  the  body,  stiff  and  stark,  in 


Great  Judicial,  Farce. 


57 


all  its  gruesomeness  to  lie  in  state  for  the  benefit  of  all 
Negroes  who  might  pass  by. 

While  this  squacl  of  the  “Red  Shirts”  were  busily  en- 
gaged in  intercepting  the  interment  of  the  bodies  of 
men  which  they  had  slain  or  had  assisted  in  slaying, 
another  body  Just  a short  distance  away  was  equally 
as  busy  in  the  manufacture  of  new  corpses,  while  some 
of  the  unfortunates  were  on  their  knees  in  prayer. 

Among  the  most  prominent  of  the  Negroes  falling  a 
victim  to  the  mutilators’  knives  and  the  assassins’  blud- 
geons, with  the  dead  and  the  dying  lying  all  around  and 
stenciling  the  pure  air  of  Heaven  with  the  sickly  odor 
of  death,  was  Simon  Coker,  an  unusually  bright  mulat- 
to, leader  of  the  Republican  Party  in  Barnwell  County 
and  the  representative  of  that  County  in  the  State  Sen- 
ate. He  was  shown  the  body  of  Bryant,  dead  for  sev- 
eral days,  and  told  that  equal  honors  would  be  given 
his  distinguished  carcass  when  it  had  been  made  ready 
for  exhibition.  He  was  promised  this  distinction  for 
urging  Negroes  to  vote,  to  aspire  to  official  position,  and 
to  stand  for  their  rights,  even  in  the  face  of  death  itself. 

Captain  Nat  Butler,  a brother  of  General  M.  C.  But- 
ler, under  whose  direction  the  execution  of  Coker  took 
place,  ordered  the  fatal  shots  while  the  victim  was  in 
the  middle  of  his  last  supplication  on  earth  to  Him  who 
alone  can  give  or  has  any  right  to  take  away. 

Before  being  horribly  murdered  Coker  was  reminded 
that  he  had  but  very  few  minutes  to  live  and  was  asked 
by  Captain  Butler  if  there  was  anything  which  he  could 
do  for  him.  With  great  calmness,  he  is  said  by  a mem- 
ber of  one  of  his  executioners  to  have  replied : “Yes, 

sir,  here  is  my  cotton  house  key ; I wish  you  would 
please  send  it  to  my  wife  and  tell  her  to  have  our  cotton 
ginned  and  pay  our  landlord  our  rent  just  as  soon  as 
she  can.” 

Butler  is  reported  as  saying  in  reply;  “Very  well,  Co- 
ker, I will  attend  to  this.  Now  is  there  anything  else?” 

“Yes,  sir,”  said  the  Negro,  “I  would  like  to  pray.” 


58 


Martha  Schofield. 


“All  right,  get  at  it  quick,”  Butler  answered  by  way 
of  giving  his  consent. 

Before  the  doomed  man  could  finish  his  prayer,  the 
order,  “Make  ready,  men,  aim,  fire,”  was  given  and  Si- 
mon Coker,  still  in  a kneeling  position,  with  pleas  of 
forgiveness  half  finished  on  his  lips,  passed  from  earth 
into  eternity. 

When  the  body  was  found  a ghastly  wound  in  the  fore- 
head as  if  it  had  been  made  at  close  range  was  noticed. 
Evidence  subsequently  disclosed  that  it  had  been  made 
by  one  Dunlap  Phinney,  who  delighted  in  acknowledg- 
ing the  deed  and  humorously  remarked  in  recounting 
the  terrible  crime  that  he  did  it  because  he  wanted  no 
more  dead  “niggers”  to  come  to  life  again  and  turn  wit- 
ness as  Pompey  Curry  had  done  when  he  “played  pos- 
sum” with  the  same  men  in  the  Hamburg  riot. 

And  this  outrage,  like  others  previously  perpetrated, 
and  still  others  committed  later  on,  occurred  under  the 
very  eyes  of  the  soldiers  in  blue  stationed  in  the  South 
in  the  interest  of  maintaining  the  rights  of  those  citi- 
zens who  had  been  made  free  by  the  force  of  their  arms, 
in  deadly  combat  with  the  same  men  now  being  allowed 
to  deny  the  Negroes  all  that  freedom  implied  and  all 
that  made  the  war  worthy  of  being  fought ! 

Perhaps  the  hand  of  God  had  less  to  do  with  the  non- 
interference of  the  government  in  the  rioting  than  the 
influence  set  at  work  by  the  misrule  of  those  in  power 
of  the  State  government.  Every  intelligent  soldier 
knew  of  the  chaotic  condition  of  the  country  as  a result 
of  the  open  handed  robbery  and  connivance  with  crime 
on  the  part  of  the  State  officials  and  decided  possibly 
that  the  reign  of  lawlessness  prevailing  was  no  worse 
than  the  infamous  conduct  of  the  government  under  the 
constituted  authorities.  At  any  rate,  the  “Red  Shirts” 
were  allowed  a wide  latitude  in  defiance  of  all  authority, 
and  Mart  Gary’s  and  Butler's  doctrine  of  spreading  ter- 
ror among  the  Negroes  as  the  only  means  of  rescuing 
the  State  from  the  misrule  prevailing  -triumphed  fam- 
ously. 


Great  Judicial  Farce. 


59 


Preceding  the  arrival  of  the  national  military  author- 
ities, travel  and  the  peaceable  pursuit  of  business  was 
made  as  hazardous  by  the  inefficiency  and  corruption  of 
the  constituted  authorities  as  it  had  been  made  by  the 
creation  of  the  reign  of  terror  by  the  “Red  Shirts.” 
Radical  officials,  instead  of  the  Negro,  should  be  held  ac- 
countable for  many  of  the  real  grievances  complained  of 
by  the  white  people.  In  the  hope  of  winning  his  vote 
the  Negro  was  promised  by  most  of  these  time-servers 
and  self-seekers  almost  everything  tinder  the  sun  which 
he  could  desire,  including  not  only  the  proverbial  forty 
acres  and  a mule  but  absolute  protection  in  attempts  at 
inter- marriage  with  the  whites.  He  was  urged  not  only 
AxTassert  his  rights  but  to  defend  them  even  if  it  became 
necessary  to  shoot  to  deatli  whole  communities  of  white 
people  in  doing  so.  With  this  instruction  and  the  addi- 
tional assurance  that  the  government  at  Washington 
would  protect  them  in  every  thing  they  might  do,  is  it 
any  wonder  that  the  conduct  of  these  simple,  trusting, 
unsuspicious  children  of  ignorance,  ready  to  believe  any 
thing  told  them  and  as  ready  to  act  on  false  assump- 
tions as  on  the  other  sort,  should  have  become  very  ob- 
noxious to  their  former  masters,  and  especially  to  that 
class  known  as  the  “Poor  Buckra?” 

Therefore,  the  work  Miss  Schofield  undertook  to  do 
and  accomplished  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  that  of  ed- 
ucating the  ignorant  Negro  and  empowering  him  with 
the  sword  of  reason,  in  order  that  he  might  not  be  led 
unwisely  by  those  who  sought  to  use  him  and  did  use 
him  for  selfish  purposes,  was  the  great  need  of  the  times. 

A former  member  of  one  of  the  many  “Red  Shirt” 
bands  who  participated  in  the  outrages  of  the  Ellenton 
and  Hamburg  riots  and  is  at  this  time  (1916)  an  inmate 
of  the  home  for  Confederate  soldiers  at  Columbia,  S.  C., 
stated  to  the  author  that  it  was  the  firmness,  the  reason- 
ableness and  plausibility  of  the  arguments  of  Martha 
Schofield  that  influenced  him  and  his  compatriots  in 
crime  from  molesting  the  Schofield  school.  He  states^ 
that  he  and  his  friends  once  made  designs  looking  to  the 


60 


Martha  Schofield. 


destruction  of  the  school  as  a part  of  the  plan  in  terror- 
izing the  Negroes  and  “scallawags,”  but  were  prevent- 
ed from  doing  so  only  by  the  patriotism  expressed  by 
this  little  woman  in  a casual,  brief  conversation,  at  a 
time  when  she  least  expected  their  design  against  her. 
“We  all  felt,  also,”  added  the  old  rebel,  “that  since  we 
could  not  possibly  kill  all  the  Negroes  some  of  them 
would  be  forced  to  live  amongst  us  always,  and  since  the 
more  useful  arts,  such  as  farming^Jiouse-keeping,  sew- 
ing and  cooking  which  we  satisfied  ourselves  were  speci- 
alized in  by  Miss  Schofield,  were  better  done  right  than 
wrong  her  work  might  be  helpful  to  us,  and  so  we  agreed 
to  let  her  alone.”  / 

The  great  mission  of  her  work  was  to  teach  the  Negro 
the  necessity  of  preparing  himself  for  the  duties  devolv- 
ing upon  him  after  freedom  and  to  place  in  his  hands 
the  knowledge  with  which  he  would  be  better  able  to 
discharge  these  duties.  This  took  him  first  through  an 
elementary  course  in  physiology  and  hygiene,  as  the 
first  duty  of  man  as  Miss  Schofield  understood  it,  was 
to  make  of  himself  a good  animal.  The  author,  by  reas- 
on of  her  position  in  the  medical  profession  and  on  ac- 
count of  her  attendance  at  the  Schofield  school  is  in  a 
position  to  know  that  the  principles  of  hygiene  and  san- 
itation as  taught  and  practiced  by  Martha  Schofield 
thirty  years  ago  among-the  Negroes  were  far  in  advance 
of  that  time,  so  far  in  advance  that  at  this  day  and  time 
we  see  the  same  identical  principles  in  use  among  us, 
improved  upon  but  slightly,  if  any. 

The  fact  that  Miss  Schofield  had  the  intelligence  and 
genius  to  begin  her  work  where  it  should  have  been  be- 
gun, in  the  home,  appealed  to  the  good  common  sense 
of  her  white  neighbors  who  for  enconomic  reasons,  if  not 
for  nobler  motives,  desired  improved  living  conditions 
to  obtain  among  the  Negroes.  In  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual aspect  of  the  lives  of  the  latter  the  white  man 
took  little  or  no  interest,  except  to  disparage  the  work 
done  in  this  direction ; but  morality  and  intelligence  are 
bred  on  physical  prosperity.  Instruction  in  the  art  of 


Great  Judicial  Farce. 


61 


farming  and  in  the  laws  of  sanitation  and  health  served 
to  frfee  many  who  came  under  the  influence  of  the  school 
early  in  life  from  the  shackles  and  bonds  of  a form  of 
slavery  woven  in  the  factory  of  ignorance.  Immorality, 
superstition,  disease  and  death  are  some  of  the  products 
of  this  factory.  Great  joy  is  taken  in  the  fact  that  not 
one  of  the  graduates  of  Miss  Sdhofield’s  school  has  ever 
been  convicted  or  sentenced  to  penal  servitude.  This 
demonstrates  the  wisdom  of  education  as  a means  of 
stamping  out  crime. 

Eobbery  and  murder  by  the  Negroes  in  the  new  situa- 
tion winch  freedom  had  placed  him  was  very  uncommon, 
but  he  did  practice  a form  of  conduct  more  humiliating 
to  the  wdiites  than  that  of  stealing  their  trashy  purses 
or  taking  their  lives,  wdiich  with  the  loss  of  their  slaves 
and  their  old  aristocratic  prestige,  they  considered 
worse  than  blasted.  He  “mustered”  into  the  service  of 
the  army,  aspired  to  official  recognition  and  even  cast 
votes  and  that  at  a time  when  his  old  master  wras  dis- 
franchised! Why,  he  even  arose  to  the  position  of 
Sheriff  and  Attorney-General,  Legislator  and  city  Mar- 
shall. And  in  the  execution  of  the  duties  of  his  high 
..office  he  often  had  occasion  to  arrest  some  of  his  old 
masters  or  their  best  friends,  and  this  aroused  far  more 
anger  among  the  wffiites  than  any  of  his  lesser  crimes, 
such  as  assassination,  robbery  and  the  like.  The  white 
man  resolved  about  like  this : “The  Negro  who  steals  my 
life  and  purse  stealeth  trash  but  he  who  steals  my  high- 
blowm  greatness,  takes  that  which  shall  not  elevate  him 
but  make  him  lie  lowr,  indeed,  beneath  six  foot  of  earth 
and  clay.” 

For  want  of  a cool,  calm  and  deliberate  judgment 
which  education  is  supposed  to  give  to  man,  regulating 
his  action  to  suit  occasions  and  emergencies,  the  Negro 
in  office,  erred  egregiously  in  his  dealings  with  the 
whites,  as  wffiite  men  and  the  men  of  all  races  before 
being  made  efficient  by  the  refining  influences  of  en- 
lightenment, wall  err  and  do  err.  As  a legislator  he  en- 


62 


Martha  Schofield. 


acted  some  very  foolish  and  unnecessary  legislation,  im- 
practicable if  not  discriminatory. 

Among  the  ordinances  of  the  town  of  Hamburg,  which 
was  ruled  entirely  by  Negroes,  was  one  designed  for  the 
purpose  of  entrapping  the  white  men  into  the  meshes 
of  the  law,  although  it  was  ostensibly  passed  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  public  health.  It  forbade  any  one  to  drink 
at  a public  spring  within  the  limits  of  the  town  except 
from  some  vessel  such  as  a gourd,  cup  or  dipper,  and 
was  rigidly  enforced  by  the  town  marshall  who  was  al- 
ways a Negro.  As  many  of  the  whites  who  passed  by 
it  had  no  dipper  or  cup  and  were  not  disposed  to  use 
the  one  at  the  spring  for  the  public  use  as  the  Negroes 
enjoyed  the  same  privilege  as  they  in  its  use,  this  ordi- 
nance caused  the  death  of  one  of  the  marshalls  of  the 
town  and  may  have  produced  many  riots  if  the  Negro 
authorities  had  resented  extensively  the  defiance  of  this 
law  which  the  whites  took  particular  pains  to  glaringly 
flaunt  in  their  faces. 

On  one  occasion  a white  man  was  arrested  and  taken 
before  “General”  Prince  Rivers  and  fined  five  dollars 
for  drinking  from  the  spring  without  a cup.  Sometime 
after  this  incident  a Mr.  Cockrell  in  attempting  to  drink 
from  it  in  a similar  way  was  arrested  by  the  Negro  mar- 
shall who  it  is  charged,  used  insolent  and  abusive  lan- 
guage. Cockrell  resented  it  by  stabbing  the  officer  to 
death  with  a knife.  He  escaped  capture  and  trial  for 
murder  only  by  getting  out  of  the  town  in  a coffin-box 
which  a friendly  merchant  arranged  for  his  conveni- 
ence. No  one  knew  till  years  afterwards  who  it  was  that 
killed  the  vigilant  of  the  town’s  peace,  but  everybody 
felt  that  this  act  also  killed  the  enforcemnet  of  the 
“Spout”  spring  ordinance  even  as  dead  as  the  town's 
dead  marshall. 

Miss  Schofield’s  teaching  included  helpful  instruc- 
tions in  the  matter  of  the  responsibility  of  those  entrust- 
ed with  the  exercise  of  power  and  had  for  its  object  the 
work  of  storing  the  minds  of  the  Negroes  with  correct 
and  practical  principles  of  government,  such  as  would 


Great  Judicial  Farce. 


63 


promote  peace  and  contribute  to  the  happiness  and  pro- 
guess  of  both  races  alike;  With  equal  force  she  applied 
herself  strenuously  to  the  task  of  impressing  every  Ne- 
gro official  that  she  could  possibly  reach  with  the  fact 
that  the  dignity  of  their  office  required  an  unostenta- 
tious exercise  of  authority  rather  than  a lavish  display 
of  power,  which,  unfortunately  for  the  Negro,  seemed 
to  characterize  his  first  attempt  to  rule.  She  taught 
that  good  government  rested  upon  the  exercise  of  intel- 
ligent judgment  and  was  made  strong  or  weak  in  pro- 
portion to  the  intelligence  of  those  delegated  to  perform 
its  functions,  supposing,  of  course,  that  intelligence  also 
qualifies  an  individual  (as  it  most  certainly  does  if  it 
is  heart  deep),  in  moral  fitness  for  the  duties  and  honors 
of  office. 

No  one  can  know  her  life  and  work  as  the  author 
knows  about  them  without  acknowledging  that  want  of 
her  divine  messages  is,  at  bottom  the  sole  cause  of  much 
of  our  present  woe,  as  want  of  them  were  the  cause  in 
1860  and  1870  and  1880  of  our  suffering  and  misery 
then. 

In  the  light  of  this  fact,  with  all  of  us,  white  and 
black  alike,  becoming  more  and  more  inclined  to  accept 
it  as  a fact,  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  any  attempt  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  retard  the  educational  advancement  of 
the  Negro  to  any  great  extent,  will  ever  be  made  again. 

Martha  Schofield’s  pupils  and  graduates  are  now  scat- 
tered all  over  this  broad  land,  the  majority  of  them  en- 
gaged in  farming,  and  are  making  a success ; but  a vast 
number  are  architects,  house-builders,  while  not  a few 
are  successfully  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  useful 
articles  of  all  kinds.  Among  the  best  teachers  of  the 
colored  race  are  numbered  some  of  her  students,  wiiile 
the  law  and  medical  professions  each  have  a few  to  their 
credit'. 

But  the  influence  of  her  teaching  in  the  preparation  of 
colored  men  and  women  for  the  practice  of  humanitari- 
an and  religious  principles,  the  forces  behind  all  endeav- 
or that  can  be  depended  upon  to  make  the  wTorld  a better 


64 


Martha  Schofield. 


place  in  which  to  live,  is  the  greater  legacy  of  her  life 
to  the  South,  the  white  as  well  as  the  colored  people. 

If  the  wiiite  men  of  1876  had  had  the  regard  for  the 
doctrine  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  with_  which  Miss 
Schofield’s  instruction  abounded,  the  brutalities  and 
barbaraties  of  those  horrible  times  would  have  been  im- 
possible. Intellectual  and  mojal  advancement  of  both 
the  colored  and  white  race  is  necessary,  absolutely,  to 
a higher  conception  and  a greater  appreciation  of  this 
doctrine  which  carries  with  it  the  conviction  that  all  the 
world  is  one  country  and  no  religion  is  worthy  which 
does  not  compel  us  to  do  good  wherever  and  whenever 
good  may  be  done. 

Miss  Schofield  never  seemed  to  question  whether  a so- 
licitor of  alms  was  Worthy  or  not  but  devoted  her  time 
and  energy  to  the  immediate  relief  of  the  need.  That 
the  applicant  was  in  need  and  whether  it  was  within 
her  reach  to  assist  him  or  her,  black  or  white,  was  all 
that  appeared  to  concern  her. 

It  was  out  of  the  spirit  of  such  sainted  souls  that 
the  reaction  in  the  North  against  the  continuance  of  the 
profligate  conditions  in  the  South  arose,  and  out  of  the 
wisdom  of  men  and  women  of  the  North  and  South  of 
her  calibre  and  justness,  that  remedies  for  the  healing 
of  the  wounds  were  found.  But  not  without  leaving 
scars,  however,  as  a huge  reminder  that  like  conditions 
in  the  future  will  produce  like  disaster. 

The  estimated  killed  among  the  colored  in  the  Ham- 
burg and  Ellenton  riots  is  between  150  and  200.  The 
number  of  whites  killed  is  less  than  twenty. 

But  for  the  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  United 
States  troops  towards  the  whites,  whom  they  informed 
that  rioting  must  terminate,  after  the  Ellenton  riot  had 
then  been  in  progress  for  more  than  a week,  the  number 
of  killed  and  wounded  might  have  run  into  thousands 
instead  of  only  hundreds. 

So  the  stationing  of  soldiers  in  South  Carolina  was 
at  last  justified  even  though  they  stained,  if  not  dis- 
graced, for  all  time  the  uniform  they  wore.  Their  fail- 


Great  Judicial  Farce. 


65 


ure  to  prevent  rioting,  accompanied  as  it  was  by  a large 
number  of  infinite  outrages,  may  be  forgiven  but  never 
forgotten  by  memory. 

Although  two  thousand  or  more  white  men  partici- 
pated in  these  riots  only  about  eight  hundred  were  ever 
arrested.  A charge  of  murder  or  conspiracy  to  commit 
murder  wms  hiade  against  each  one,  but  only  a few  were 
tried  and  none  punished. 

The  reason  of  the  failure  of  the  government  to  press 
the  charges  and  convict  the  guilty  was  not  for  want  of 
evidence  nor  from  any  fear  of  another  conflict  of  like 
character  but  on  account  of  the  election  of  General 
Wade  Hampton  to  the  governorship,  in  whose  courage 
and  justice  the  United  States  Government  had  perfect 
confidence.  Besides,  the  most  intelligent  Negroes  as 
well  as  the  whole  radical  regime  of  the  South  plead  for 
moderation  in  dealing  with  these  cases.  The  radicals 
utilized  the  Federal  indictments  against  the  “Red 
Shirts”  as  a scare-crow  to  intimidate  them  in  the  pros- 
ecution of  themselves  in  the  State  courts  which  followed 
the  inauguration  of  Hampton.  The  Democrats  in  Con- 
gress who  were  bitterly  contesting,  at  the  time  the  elec- 
tion of  Hayes,  a Republican,  to  the  presidency  over  Til- 
den,  also  lent  their  powerful  influence  to  the  motion  to 
nol  pros  the  cases  against  the  whites  by  agreeing  not  to 
press  the  cases  at  home  against  the  former  rulers  of  the 
South.  It  was  also  stipulated  that  the  Democrats  must 
accept  the  choice  of  Hayes  for  president  if  the  Repub- 
licans succeeded  in  having  the  troops  from  South  Caro- 
lina and  Louisiana  removed. 

These  were  the  conditions  upon  which  a treaty  of 
peace  was  entered  into  by  the  Republicans  and  Demo- 
crats at  the  time  of  the  election  of  President  Hayes,  but 
since  that  time  laws  have  been  passed  in  many  of  the 
States  making  it  a felony  for  citizens  to  utter  such 
agreements,  and,  of  course,  would  apply  for  more  severe- 
ly in  the  case  of  officials  whose  sworn  duty  it  is  to  pros- 
ecute those  guilty  of  crime. 


/ 


CHAPTER  X. 

Crime  Breeds  Criminals. 

After  the  withdrawal  of  troops  from  the  South,  crime 
of  every  sort  went  regularly  on  much  as  usual,  though 
not  on  nearly  so  large  a scale  as  before.  Negro  men 
and  women,  as  well  as  those  of  the  whites  who  had  sym- 
pathized with  the  radical  regime,  were  whipped  and 
even  murdered  on  the  flimsiest  and  slightest  pretext  and 
in  the  most  wanton  manner.  Robbery  was  of  such  fre- 
quent occurrence  as  to  occasion  surprise  only  when  it 
did  not  happen.  Negroes  became  good  Democrats  or 
submitted  to  unmerciful  whippings.  This  soon  reduced 
the  number  of  objectionable  voters  to  such  a negligent 
quantity  as  they  all  got  lost  in  a well-hidden  minority. 
Everybody  who  was  not  a Democrat  was  worse  than  an 
infidel.  A Republican  stood  no  more  chance  of  success 
in  a contest  for  political  preference  than  a snow  ball  in 
the  infernal  regions.  Social  ostracism  was  handed  out 
to  him  to  the  extent  of  ignoring  him  altogether,  visiting 
his  home  in  case  of  the  direst  necessity  and  then  long 
enough  only  to  attend  to  the  matter  in  hand  in  the  short- 
est time  possible.  His  little  children  were  not  infre- 
quently whipped  by  other  children  on  account  of  their 
father  being  a Republican. 

This  was  the  spirit  existing  between  a South  Carolina 
Democrat  and  Republican  only  a few  years  ago,  but  to- 
day the  two  meet  on  terms  of  perfect  equality,  provided, 
of  course,  that  each  are  white;  and  discuss  the  politics 
of  the  country  without  a quarrel  or  even  exciting  much 
attention.  The  Democrat  is  perfectly  willing  to  let  the 
Republican  run  the  government  at  Washington  as  long 
as  the  Republican  remains  indifferent  to  the  rule  of  the 
Democrat  in  the  government  of  the  State.  The  one 
bribes  the  other  and  each  cheats  the  Negro.  The  latter’s 
vote,  under  the  disfranchisemnt  laws  enacted  by  the 
Democrats,  is  so  negligible  as  to  draw  the  contempt  of 
the  majority  party  and  obtain  a few  false  promises  only 
from  the  party  of  the  minority. 


Crime  Breeds  Criminals. 


67 


But  in  spite  of  the  handicap  of  continued  injustice 
and  persecution,  in  the  face  of  opposition  when  the  race 
was  weaker  and  not  so  capable  of  bearing  its  burdens 
as  now,  the  Negro  race  through  the  assimilation  of 
knowledge  is  evolving  at  a rapid  rate.  Miss  Schofield’s 
work  is  bearing  fruit,  enriched  by  the  multiplication  of 
schools  all  over  the  South.  The  habit  of  wiiipping  and 
murdering  Negroes  is  growing  less  and  less  frequent 
and  becoming  in  most  of  the  Southern  States,  quite  a 
serious  offense.  Eecent  acts  of  some  of  the  legislatures 
of  States  make  a county  in  which  a person  is  lynched 
responsible  to  the  family  sustaining  the  loss,  and  suit 
to  recover  the  sum  of  $2,000.00  as  an  indemnity  is  au- 
thorized. Improvement  in  the  moral  standard  of  the 
whites  is  making  for  improvement  in  the  moral  standard 
of  the  Negro.  As  the  condition  of  one  race  improves 
the  other  improves.  The  two  will  continue  to  go  up  or 
down  together. 

The  lesson  that  crime  breeds  criminals,  taught  by  the 
brutalities  of  the  “Red  Shirts,”  will  never  be  forgotten 
by  the  white  people  of  the  South.  When  these  people 
tired  of  robbing  and  assassinating  Negroes,  many  of 
them  turned  on  their  own  kind  and  not  a few  but  suff- 
ered much.  A man  named  Taylor  for  no  other  griev- 
ance that  that  he  accepted  the  office  of  Sheriff  under 
Chamberlain,  a Republican  governor,  was  shot  down  in 
his  own  home  under  the  very  eyes  and  nose  of  his  wife. 
Conviction  of  the  criminal  was,  of  course,  impossible  as 
there  were  numbers  and  numbers  of  men  bound  together 
by  oaths  and  other  ties  of  secret  invention  ready  at  call 
to  perjure  themselves  in  any  event  affecting  a member 
of  their  clan,  while  at  that  time  a wife  could  testify 
neither  for  nor  against  her  husband.  The  criminality  of 
the  times  had  made  criminals  of  men  formerly  of  gen- 
tlemanly traits,  and  splendid  character,  while  those  of 
an  immoral  nature  from  inheritance  were  rendered 
desperately  and  hopelessly  criminal. 

Than  “Uncle”  Alex  Bettis,  there  was  never  a better 
Negro  in  all  the  world.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  could 


68 


Martha  Schofield. 


really  do  no  wrong  wilfully,  that  all  his  errors  were  to 
be  charged  to  the  ignorance  of  his  poor  brain  rather 
than  to  any  sinister  motive  of  his  pure  heart;  yet  not- 
withstanding his  reputation  as  a faithful  friend  to  the 
white  man,  to  all  men  of  all  races,  the  type  of  criminal 
produced  by  the  criminality  of  the  times  was  so  de- 
praved that  it  sought  the  life  of  Bettis,  justifying  their 
actions  by  asserting  that  his  work  as  a minister  and  an 
advocate  of  education  for  the  colored  race  was  inimical 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  people,  white  and  black  alike. 

Although  almost  illiterate,  “Uncle  Alex”  was  truly  a 
power  behind  the  throne  of  grace  on  earth,  for  them  be- 
hind that  throne,  when  he  directed  the  machinery  con- 
nected with  it,  all  imaginary  blessings  on  earth  and  in 
Heaven  flowed,  even  to  over-flowing  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Negroes.  It  is  admitted  now,  and  should  have  been  ac- 
knowledged at  the  time  of  his  great  ministry  that  Mr. 
Bettis’  assurances  of  salvation  to  the  Negro  for  a right- 
eous life  and  eternal  damnation  for  a wicked  life  well 
served  to  cause  thousands  of  his  followers  to  abandon 
their  ways  of  sin  and  lead  lives  of  self-sacrifice  and 
Christian  effort,  as  Jesus  would  have  all  peoples  to  live 
and  act. 

Perhaps  his  preaching  was  not  considered  objectiona- 
ble and  had  he  confined  himself  solely  to  that  alone, 
would  not  have  been  disturbed;  but  he  had  become  im- 
bued with  the  redeeming  influence  of  education  through 
contact  with  the  Schofield  school  at  Aiken  and  early  in 
his  work  began  the  agitation  for  a Negro  school,  where, 
along  with  elementary  literary  courses,  should  be 
taught  the  industrial  arts  as  Miss  Schofield  was  doing. 
This  aroused  the  highly  criminal  element  of  the  whites, 
who  wanted  some  pretext  to  further  persecute  the  Ne- 
groes, and  so  it  was  ordered  at  one  of  their  meetings 
that  Bettis  should  be  put  to  death.  The  day,  date  and 
place  for  his  execution  had  been  fixed,  but  on  account 
of  an  accident  or  some  illness  to  his  horse,  a large  iron- 
gray,  known  to  the  whole  country-side,  the  minister 
passed  the  band  of  murderers  bent  on  his  assassination, 


Crime  Breeds  Criminals. 


69 


astride  another  horse,  in  disguise.  The  leader  of  the 
mob  inquired  of  the  rider  if  he  knew  of  the  whereabouts 
of  Bettis.  He  replied  that  “preacher  Bettis  wus  jes’  a 
little  way  up  de  road  at  Simon  Kenny’s  ho’se,  and  wus 
’er  cornin’  er  long  terrectly.”  - 

The  mob  waited  all  the  afternoon  and  throughout  the 
night  for  Bettis  but  he  never  came.  So  early  the  next 
morning  they  called  in  person  at  the  Bettis’  home.  He 
received  them  with  great  kindness,  and  althuogh  he 
knew  the  object  of  their  visit,  showed  no  excitement 
whatever. 

When  informed  that  his  death  had  been  decided  on, 
and  that  he  had  but  little  time  in  which  to  live,  Bettis 
displayed  a calmness  and  self-control  that  would  have 
stripped  Zeno  of  his  honors  at  the  shrine  of  stoicism. 

“Well,  ef  dat  be  de  way  der  gud  Lawd  hab  fer  me  ter 
go”  said  Bettis,  “I’s  re’dy,  but  yo’  genermen  luk  lak  yer 
is  pow’rful  hungry,  an’  befo’  yer  tends  ter  de  bisness 
at  ban’  pleas  let  mer  ole  lady  fix  yer  a bit’  ter  ete.” 

As  something  to  eat  in  those  days  was  very  welcome 
and  there  was  unusual  hunger  among  the  party,  the  con- 
sent of  the  mob  to  have  Mrs.  Bettis  prepare  the  meal 
was  readily  obtained.  During  the  interval  between  its 
preparation  and  consumption  Bettis  entertained  his 
guests  with  talks  relating  to  his  crops,  the  condition  of 
crops  generally  throughout  his  circuit  of  churches  and 
kept  repeating  at  the  end  of  each  subject : “But  laws  er 
mercy,  youn’  marsters,  its  a heap  wusser  fer  de  po’  nig- 
ger dan  it  wus  befo’  de  wah.  Now,  he’s  got.  nuttin  but 
freedum,  whiles  fo'  freedum  he  hab  all  he  wants  ter  ete 
an’  mo’  ter  boot,  an’  hab  close  to  ware  and  ebbryting  ter 
kep  hissef  wa’m.” 

If  these  bad  men  were  not  wholly  disarmed  by  the 
simple,  rustic  beauty  of  the  Negro’s  unaffected  dis- 
course in  the  presence  of  death,  during  the  whole  of 
which  not  once  did  he  evince  any  sign  that  a single 
thought  of  his  sad  fate  had  ever  passed  through  his 
troubled  brain,  they  were  certainly  deeply  affected  by 
it,  as  well  as  by  that  act  of  his  in  desiring  to  feed  them, 


70 


Martha  Schofield. 


they  who  had  come,  not  to  feed  him  but  to  make  food  of 
him  for  the  worms  of  old  graves  in  the  silent  woods  of 
sighing  forest  trees ! 

When  the  hungry  had  been  fed  and  all  had  returned 
to  the  sitting  room  of  the  humble  Negro  home,  Mr.  Bet- 
tis said,  “Well,  youn’  marsters,  I g’ess  yo’  is  ’er  wantin’ 
ter  go,  and  so  I’se  not  er  goin’  ter  dela’  yo’  Ion’,  but  I 
do  wants  ter  pra’,  ef  yo’  pleas’es  suhs.” 


\ 


CHAPTER  XI. 


Mob  Spirit  of  Lick  Skillet. 

At  the  time  of  this  dramatic  period  in  the  life  of  ‘‘Un- 
cle” Alex,  the  greatest  excitement  prevailed  elsewhere 
in  Lick  Skillet  neighborhood,  as  Allen  Dodson  and  his 
neighbors,  armed  with  rifles  and  led  by  blood  hounds, 
pursued  the  trail  of  Leslie  Duncarit>  a son  of  Laura, 
whom  £he  reader  met  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  story, 
firmly  determnied  to  hang  him  to  the  first  convenient 
limb  and  riddle  his  body  with  bullets.  With  a pitch- 
fork  he  had  stabbed  Willie  Hudson,  Allen’s  15  year  old 
son  and  inflicted  a severe  wound  in  tbe  stomach,  for 
whipping  him  with  a lash.  Besides,  in  leaving  the  Dod- 
son farm  he  had  broken  a labor  contract  which  he  had 
made  with  Mr.  Dodson  at  one  dollar  per  week  and 
board,  and  deserved  to  be  captured  and  shot  without 
the  expense  and  formality  of  a trial  in  a legalized  court 
of  justice! 

“Unless  we  make  an  example  of  this  ‘nigger,’  ” said 
the  leader  of  the  party,  as  they  took  a short  rest,  propped 
up  on  their  guns,  “it  will  soon  come  to  a pass  that  we 
might  as  well  try  to  control  the  winds  as  these  terrify- 
ing black  brutes.  If  we  don’t  subdue  them  they  will 
subdue  us.  That’s  what  old  Ben  Tillman  says,  and  he 
knows.  Good  God,  fellows,  you  ought  to  have  heard  that 
old  one-eyed  rebel  speak  the  other  night  at  Daleyville. 
I’d  vote  for  him  for  any  position  he  might  want.  I 
would  even  vote  to  change  the  form  of  government  in 
America  and  make  him  Emporer  if  I only  had  the 
chance !” 

Long,  loud  and  enthusiastic  cheering  followed  this 
declaration  by  Millard  Dodson,  the  eldest  son  of  Allen, 
whose  eternal  enmity  for  Leslie  was  quite  well  under- 
stood by  all  members  of  the  mob  as  well  as  by  others 
of  his  neighbors.  Those  who  refused  to  join  in  the  at- 
tempted capture  and  assassination  said  that  the  boy  had 
a right  to  defend  himself,  and  intimated  that  the  quar- 
rel and  fight  were  precipitated  by  Millard  to  rid  the 


72 


Martha  Schofield. 


community  of  Leslie  who  was  paying  entirely  too  much 
attention  to  Matilda  Deas,  a nineteen  year  old  mulatto 
employed  as  cook  in  the  Dodson  home,  whose  affection 
for  Leslie  dated  back  to  their  school  days  together  eight 
years  before,  to  suit  Millard.  His  wife  had  on  one  oc- 
casion abandoned  him  and  threatened  a separation  on 
account  of  the  gossip  of  intimacy  between  him  and  Ma- 
tilda. Leslie,  who  had  departed  in  haste  after  wound- 
ing the  boy,  which  incident  took  place  three  hours  be- 
fore it  was  timed  by  Millard  to  come  off  made  good 
use  of  the  spare  moments  at  his  disposal  for  eluding  the 
mob,  which  he  knew  in  his  own  mind  would  follow  him, 
unopposed  by  the  police  authorities,  and  execute  him  if 
his  capture  could  be  effected. 

With  him  it  was  a case  of  life,  with  Matilda  and  child- 
ren and  a happy  home,  although  he  knew  the  sacred 
purity  and  virtue  of  his  bethrothed  had  been  despoiled 
by  the  lust  of  one  of  the  men,  at  least,  seeking  his  life;  if 
he  could  escape  this  was  possible;  otherwise  it  was 
death  with  all  the  tortures  of  the  damned.  So  he  spurr- 
ed himself  on  and  onward  in  his  flight,  through  tangled 
woods  and  swamps,  across  deep  and  swift  flowing 
streams,  over  hills  and  high  precipices,  down  through 
the  valleys  and  old  fashioned  fields,  stopping  only  once 
in  ten  hours  to  rest  at  a Negro  farm  home,  where  he  was 
given  some  food  and  a small  bit  of  change  to  aid  him 
along  on  his  jounrey  to  a place  of  safety,  if  place  of  safe- 
ty beyond  the  grave  there  was ! Twice  or  thrice  he  heard 
the  barking  of  dogs  and  the  voices  of  men  as  nearer  and 
nearer  they  approached  and  his  heart  almost  stopped 
beating.  It  developed  that  what  he  did  hear  was  the  re- 
ports of  cattle  buyers  from  the  West  who  were  in  the 
South  buying  up  the  “scrub  stock”  to  take  to  the  plains 
to  fatten  for  the  Chicago  packing  houses.  As  fear  of 
being  overtaken  and  summarily  put  to  death,  without  a. 
last  word  or  look  or  kiss  from  his  sweetheart,  would 
tend  to  accelerate  his  speed,  so  would  that  joy  he  felt 
over  the  possibility  of  escape  and  final  reunion  with  Ma- 
tilda cause  him  to  double  and  redouble  his  energies  in 
his  onward  course  in  the  mad  race  for  life. 


Mob  Spirit  of  Lick  Skillet. 


73 


His  pursuers  discounting  the  cleverness  of  the  Negro 
in  selecting  only  unfrequented  roads  and  abandoned 
farm-houses,  as  places  of  travel  and  concealment  when 
a rest  became  imperative,  had  lost  the  trail  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  hunt  and  on  the  second  morning,  although 
they  searched  diligently  until  midnight  on  the  evening 
before,  found  the  hunters  and  their  bird  of  prey  some 
thirty  odd  miles  apart.  Dissentions  had  arisen  among 
the  members  over  the  conduct  of  the  chase  at  the  begin- 
ning which  for  a while  threatened  to  break  up  the  party, 
but  about  this  time  Ben  Milligan,  who  was  drunk  when 
the  party  first  set  out  and  unable  to  go  at  first  call 
joined  them  with  a gallon  of  “Old  North  Carolina 
Corn,”  and  the  information  that  Leslie  had  been  seen 
only  a few  hours  before  in  the  Shinburnally  neighbor- 
hood. Under  the  stimulation  of  the  whiskey  and  the 
false  promises  of  the  leader  of  the  mob  to  pay  the  party 
first  to  lay  hands  on  Leslie  Duncan  the  sum  of  twenty- 
five  dollars,  new  momentum  was  injected  into  the  chase 
and  as  long  as  the  whiskey  lasted  it  was  energetic 
enough  to  elicit  the  praise  of  the  most  pronounced 
grouch  among  the  men. 

But  miscalculations  were  again  made,  as  Leslie  was 
many  miles  from  Shinburnally  and  was  going  as  fast  as 
his  tired  legs  could  carry  him  on  and  on  in  an  opposite 
direction. 

In  the  meantime,  Mrs.  Millard  Dodson  in  a rage  of  in- 
dignation over  the  report  going  the  rounds  of  the  neigh- 
borhood and  gaining  credence  each  day  that  the  ‘valler 
woman’  at  her  home  had  succeeded  in  alienating  the  af- 
fections of  her  husband  completely,  had  taken  advan- 
tage of  Millard’s  absence  to  rid  her  household  of  the 
presence  of  the  person  she  conceived  to  be  the  source  of 
much  of  her  domestic  infelicity,  shame  and  disgrace. 
With  the  aid  of  John  Quincy,  her  eldest  son,  she  had  ad- 
ministered a terrible  beating  to  the  woman  and  at  the 
point  of  a gun  had  marched  her  three  miles  from  the 
farm  and  after  commanding  her  to  go  and  admonishing 
her  never  to  show  herself  in  Lick  Skillet  again  on  pen- 


74 


Martha  Schofield. 


alty  of  death,  left  her  and  returned  to  the  house,  stop- 
ping at  each  of  the  neighbor's  houses  to  inform  them  of 
what  she  had  done. 

During  her  absence  from  the  house,  Millard  and  his 
party,  which  had  postponed  the  chase  for  want  of  more 
whiskey,  had  returned  and  were  ransacking  the  pantries 
and  side  boards  in  the  dining  room  as  she  entered,  in 
quest  of  food  which  they  had  gone  without  for  nearly 
thirty-six  hours. 

“Where’s  Matilda?”  inquired  Millard,  as  his  wife  sud- 
denly entered  the  house. 

“That  Negro  wench  is  gone”  she  told  him  in  a calm, 
unimpassioned  voice,  “and  gone  forever.  I have  borne 
the  disgrace  of  the  reported  relation  between  her  and 
you  as  long  as  I can,  much  longer  and  far  more  patient- 
ly than  I should  have  been  expected  to,  so  I gave  her  a 
whipping  which  she  will  never  forget  and  took  the  gun 
and  marched  her  away  With  such  a warning  that  will 
be  heeded.” 

Millard  tried  hard  to  conceal  the  effect  which  the  tem- 
porary loss  of  his  paramour  had  on  him  by  approving 
the  action  of  his  wife;  at  the  same  time  he  assured  her 
that  the  common  gossip  of  the  neighborhood  was  with- 
out the  least  foundation,  and  that  it  would  have  aided 
in  the  capture  had  Matilda  been  retained  for  a few  days 
longer.  But  that  indescribable  inner  consciousness 
which  betrays  guilt  and  convicts  the  criminal  beyond 
the  hope  of  escape,  except  through  suicide,  and  suicide 
is  not  escape,  marked  the  stain  of  dishonor  and  shame 
all  over  his  countenance  with  its  brush  of  indelible 
guilt. 

After  the  departure  of  the  members  of  the  mob,  pan- 
demonium broke  loose  in  the  Dodson  home  over  Mil- 
lard’s attempt  to  chastise  his  wife  for  running  Matilda 
away,  being  intercepted  by  his  two  daughters  and  the 
energetic  pugilistic  activities  of  the  wife.  When  the 
resounding,  reverberating  atmosphere  had  cleared  away 
the  father  found  two  large  bruises  on  his  face  and  a 
slight  wound  in  the  back  from  a knife  as  evidence,  proof 


Mob  Spirit  of  Lick  Skillet. 


75 


and  positive,  that  his  was  essentially  a family  of  fight- 
ers on  the  mother’s  side  at  least.  Matilda,  at  this  time, 
was  more  than  ten  miles  away  and  happy  as  a bird  sud- 
denly freed  from  its  cage  except  for  one  thing  which 
burdened  her  soul  as  no  other  event  had  ever  done  since 
the  evening  that  the  beastly  Dodson  had  forced  her  to 
surrender  her  body  to  his  passion  in  satisfying  his 
greedy  lust,  and  that  one  thing  was  the  ignorance  in 
which  'she  lived  of  the  safpty  and  security  qf  her  lover, 
Leslie,  whom  she  felt  quite  sure  by  or  before  that  hour 
had  been  captured  and  lynched. 

Maybe  he  had  made  good  his  escape.  For  the  latter 
she  had  hoped  and  prayed  with  the  earnestness,  desper- 
ation and  despair  with  which  she  so  long  warded  off  the 
entreaties  and  appeals  of  Dodson  when  he  first  made 
the ‘advances  which  finally  culminated  in  the  degrada- 
tion of  her  life.  Her  miserable  life  was  spent  in  his 
home  only  under  compulsion,  the  compulsion  of  a labor 
contract  entered  into  by  her  in  legal  form,  a breach  of 
which  she  knew  from  the  experience  of  other  colored 
women  employed  under  such  terms  and  conditions 
meant  only  one  thing — a term  of  penal  servitude  at  the 
hardest  of  the  most  degraded  sort  of  labor ! 

So  she  had  determined  to  carry  out  her  part  of  the 
contract  and  at  the  end  of  it  marry  Leslie  and  settle 
down  in  a home  of  her  own,  to  bless  it,  perhaps,  with 
the  voices  of  children  and  all  the  endearments  which 
the  relations  of  father,  mother  and  child  mean  to  man- 
kind. 

But  in  a world  of  strange  and  unfriendly  relations, 
the  only  sort  of  a world  which  she  had  ever  known,  hav- 
ing been  but  eight  years  old  on  the  day  of  the  impeach- 
ment of  President  Andrew  Johnson,  in  the  great  white- 
heat  of  the  conflict  being  waged  by  the  whites  of  the 
North  and  the  whites  and  the  Negroes  of  the  South  in 
that  great  historical  drama  known  all  over  the  civilized 
world  as  the  “Reconstruction  Period!”  What  blighted 
hopes  they  should  have  been!  Meditating  over  the 
hopelessness  of  her  present  plight,  separated  from  her 


76 


Martha  Schofield. 


lover,  whose  body  at  that  moment  for  all  she  knew 
might  be  dangling  at  the  end  of  a rope,  stung  to  the 
heart  by  hundreds  of  bullets  from  the  guns  of  armed 
murderers;  and  without  the  reach,  comfort  and  consol- 
ation of  her  father,  who  was  at  that  time  serving  a sen- 
tence in  the  penitentiary  for  disposing  of  a crop  under 
lien,  the  spirit  of  despair  was  rapidly  enveloping  her 
troubled  soul,  when  lo,  and  behold,  there  appeared  be- 
fore her  no  other  a person  than  Dodson  on  his  swiftest 
mare  with  Leslie  in  tow,  tied  hard  and  fast  to  his  saddle ! 
As  unexpected  as  a bolt  of  lightning  from  the  clear  blue 
sky  and  with  the  vigor  and  fierceness  of  a tiger  she 
sprang  between  the  horse  and  the  bound  boy  and  began 
biting  and  knawing  at  the  rope  with  the  voracity  of  a 
starving  lion  in  contact  with  its  hunk  of  meat. 

At  first  Millard  drew  his  pistol  and  threatened  to 
shoot  if  she  did  not  desist  but  paying  no  attention  at 
all  to  his  demands  she  kept  on  chewing  the  rope  as  if 
she  had  not  heard,  when  Leslie  managed  to  secure  his 
knife  from  his  pocket  and  get  it  into  her  hands  with 
which  she  cut  the  rope  in  two,  and  set  her  lover  free. 
Then  facing  her  traducer  and  heaping  curse  after  curse 
upon  him  and  daring  him  to  shoot,  she  managed  to  dis- 
tract his  attention  from  Leslie  and  give  the  latter  time 
to  get  out  of  reach,  which  he  did,  remaining,  however, 
near  by  in  concealment  ready  at  any  moment  to  spring 
upon  his  adversary  and  engage  him  in  mortal  combat 
if  further  harm  threatened  his  sweetheart. 

For  the  purpose  of  making  Leslie’s  escape  secure,  Ma- 
tilda consented  to  return  with  Dodson  on  condition  that 
the  charges  against  her  lover  be  withdrawn  and  he  be 
allowed  to  leave  the  country  unmolested  by  any  mob  or 
officers  of  the  law;  and  seating  herself  behind  him  on 
his  swift,  gay,  young  horse  the  two  had  scarcely  begun 
the  journey  back  home  when  the  girl  spied  Leslie  in  hid- 
ing. With  the  dexterity  of  a born  adroit  sleuth  she  ex- 
tracted from  one  of  the  pockets  in  the  back  of  Dodson's 
pants  the  pistol  with  which  he  had  failed  to  frighten 
her  and  dropped  it  silently  in  the  dust  before  the  eyes  of 


Mob  Spirit  of  Lick  Skillet. 


Leslie,  all  unknown  to  Dodson.  In  the  next  few  mom- 
ents the  latter  was  looking  clown  the  barrel  of  his  own 
gun,  his  teeth  chattering  as  if  suddenly  attacked  bv  a 
chill  and  his  whole  body  shaking  and  quivering  as  if  in 
the  throes  of  an  ague.  He  very  quickly  consented  to  be 
bound  hand  and  foot  and  tied  to  a tree  in  the  woods 
some  distance  from  the  road-side  and  forever  abandon 
the  prosecution  of  Leslie,  and  permit  Matilda  to  go  in 
peace  and  trouble  her  no  more,  as  the  price  of  his  life, 
now  at  the  mercy  of  those  whose  liberty  of  body  and 
soul  less  than  an  hour  before  was  entirely  in  his  hands 
to  be  dealt  with  as  he  wished. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Great  Progress  of  Negro. 

The  predicament  of  Millard  was  rendered  all  the  more 
distressing  by  the  engagement  of  most  of  his  friends  in 
the  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  “Uncle”  Alex  Bettis. 
They  were  not  in  ignorance,  however,  of  the  chase  for 
Leslie  Duncan  and  the  desire  to  get  into  it  themselves 
probably  hastened  the  brief  consultation  which  resulted 
in  the  release  of  Bettis  on  his  promise  to  see  to  it  that 
the  classes  of  study  in  his  school  included  agriculture 
and  not  social  and  political  economy.  Besides  Brother 
Bettis’  prayer  was  a masterful  plea  for  the  forgiveness 
of  the  sins  of  those  bent  on  taking  his  life.  It  was  pa- 
thetic. Some  of  the  mob  shed  tears,  real  heart-felt 
tears,  that  flow  from  the  heart  in  our  moments  of  con- 
templation of  the  generousnes  of  God  and  beauty  of  his 
handiwork  as  naturally  as  rain  from  a niountain  sum- 
mer cloud. 

Those  who  felt  the  Omnipotent  power  of  God  in  the 
kindness  and  prayers  of  this  simple  old  colored  man 
counselled  with  the  more  marble-hearted  and  vicious  of 
their  number,  and  all  at  last  agreed  that  while  the  old 
man’s  magnetic  influence  and  his  powerful,  mysterious 
control  over  himself  in  a period  of  the  greatest  suspense 
might  prove  a monster  with  which  they  would  liaVfe  to 
deal  later  on,  none  could  have  the  heart  wicked  enough 
to  put  him  to  death. 

So  Mr.  Bettis  demonstrated  a stragetic  ability  that 
should  prove  to  be  the  admiration  of  white  men,  learned 
and  skilled  in  the  art  of  strategy,  as  well  as  proved  con- 
clusively in  his  own  case,  the  efficacy  and  power  of  pray- 
er. Until  the  day  of  his  death  he  always  maintained 
that  it  was  not  the  delay  which  the  preparation  of  the 
dinner  occasioned  giving  him  time  to  influence  the  men 
against  taking  his  life;  nor,  indeed  the  kindness  dis- 
played in  the  act  of  feeding  and  nourishing  his  enemies, 
but  wholly  and  absolutely  the  power  of  God  in  answer 
to  prayer! 


Great  Progress  of  Negro. 


79 


This  demonstration  in  his  own  case  of  the  saving  effi- 
cacy of  prayer  was  worth  more  to  him  than  all  the  vol- 
umes of  theology  ever  written  could  have  been  in  reach- 
ing the  ears  and  hearts  of  his  benighted  followers,  who 
had  to  be  made  to  see  and  feel  with  their  own  sense  of 
sight  and  touch  the  evidence  of  the  tangible  things 
which  an  educated  mind  finds,  without  literal  interpre- 
tation, in  everything,  even  in  rocks  and  stones  and  run- 
ning brooks. 

He  preached  not  to  the  heads  of  his  hearers,  but  to 
their  hearts;  not  about  Emerson,  Spencer,  Napoleon,  or 
Shakespeare,  but  about  Jesus  Christ,  His  death,  His  res- 
urrection and  His  power  to  resurrect  even  them,  as  He 
was  resurrected  if  only  they  would  believe  on  Him  and 
live  such  lives  as  He  had  lived. 

Is  it  not  remarkable  that  a man  with  the  power  to 
carry  such  a message  to  those  who  stood  in  such  great 
need  if  it  should  have  been  singled  out  for  destruction 
by  those  whose  interest  he  was  serving  in  disseminating 
the  unadulterated  doctrine  of  the  lowly  Nazarene?  Yet 
history  of  sacred  and  profane  origin  all  record  that  the 
men  and  women  who  really  benefit  their  kind  do  so  at 
the  risk  of  martyring  themselves. 

The  power  of  prayer  which  the  Kev.  Alexander  Bettis 
used  so  dramatically  in  rescuing  himself  from  an  ignom- 
inous  death  was  used  effectively  in  the  establishment 
and  later  the  development  of  a great  school  in  which 
through  the  adoption  of  the  methods  pursued  at  the 
Schofield  school  at  Aiken,  the  condition  of  thousands  of 
children  and  hundreds  of  homes  have  been  reformed, 
even  transformed,  revolutionized  and  made  new.  This 
school  in  honor  of  its  founder  and  executive  head  until 
the  day  of  his  death  is  known  as  the  Bettis  Academy 
and  is  located  on  a farm  of  several  hundred  acres  near 
Trenton,  S.  C.  The  interest  taken  in  it  at  its  earliest 
inception  by  Miss  Schofield,  together  with  the  great 
work  done  by  Mr.  Bettis  at  his  own  expense  without 
any  compensation  whatever,  made  the  institution  possi- 
ble and  a force  from  the  start  in  the  education  of  the 


80 


Maetha  Schofield. 


Negroes  from  many  of  the  counties  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia. 

The  great  personality  of  the  founder  attracted  to  the 
school  like  a loadstone,  large  numbers  of  Negroes,  and 
Miss  Schofield,  who  enjoyed  Mr.  Bettis’  confidence  in 
full,  seeing  the  opportunity  which  the  school  afforded 
her  to  accomplish  the  maximum  of  results,  most  heart- 
ily cooperated  in  the  conduct  of  it.  She  not  only  wrote 
and  lectured  for  her  school  but  for  Bettis  Academy  as 
well. 

In  fact,  every  line  written  and  every  word  spoken  in 
the  interest  of,  or  inimical  to,  the  interest  of  all  related 
enterprise  affect  each  other  for  good  or  evil,  in  the  same 
proportion.  This  makes  the  attempts  to  injure  one  race 
of  human  beings  by  another  race  withput  injury  to  it- 
self impossible,  and  is  the  foundation  lock  upon  which 
the  Negro  race  can  stand  with  perfect  confidence,  that 
absolute  justice  will  eventually  be  done  it. 

To  the  intelligent  supervision  of  the  organization  of 
the  Bettis  Academy  much  credit  is  due  Martha  Scho- 
field. She  was  the  store-house  from  which  ideas  of  the 
most  experienced  and  practical  sort  emanated  for  per- 
fecting all  departments,  especially  the  industrial  depart- 
ment. The  school  in  a few  years,  paid  her  back  many 
times  by  the  wide  interest  its  patrons  took  in  the  Farm- 
ers’ Conference,  a local  organization  for  every  colored 
school  in  the  country,  original  with  the  Schofield  Nor- 
mal and  Industrial  Institute,  having  for  its  object  the 
encouragement  of  the  farmers  to  buy  land,  to  raise  more 
food  supplies,  to  stop  mortgaging  their  property  and  to 
extend  the  term  of  the  country  school.  At  the  general 
meetings  of  these  Conferences  which  were  held  in  Feb- 
ruary of  each  year  in  the  chapel  of  the  Schofield  school, 
Bettis’  followers  were  largely  in  attendance.  This  gave 
Miss  Schofield  the  opportunity  she  so  much  desired  of 
meeting  face  to  face  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  those 
whom  she  regarded  as  the  foundation-stone  for  the  new 
structure  of  civilization  which  freedom  and  her  educa- 
tional work  was  building. 


Great  Progress  of  Negro. 


81 


Among  the  wide  range  of  subjects  discussed,  no  ques- 
tion was  given  so  much  importance  as  better  trying  con- 
ditions. These  discussions,  in  which  hundreds  present 
participated,  discouraged  the  habit  of  living  in  cabins. 
With  what  practical  knowledge  the  attendants  gained 
at  the  general  meeting,  augmented  by  the  instruction 
given  the  students  of  the  schools,  every  Negro  family  in 
a wide  area  was  greatly  benefited.  Miss  Schofield,  out  of 
the  funds  of  her  school  employed  an  organizer  whose 
duty  it  was  to  organize  a conference  in  every  commun- 
ity, without  cost  to  the  members.  The  benefits  to  be  de- 
rived from  the  work  were  apparent  in  a short  time  in 
many  ways.  One  room  cabins  soon  evolved  into  homes 
of  at  least  two  rooms  and  even  three,  four  and  five ; ten- 
ants as  fast  as  they  could  became  owners  of  homes; 
many  mortgages  were  burned  and  few  were  given,  and 
increases  in  production  of  crops  were  very  noticeable. 
Terms  of  schools  were  lengthened  from  two  months  to 
four,  five  and  even  six  months,  as  a result  of  the  work 
of  the  conferences.  But  better  than  all  was  the  extra- 
ordinary improvement  apparent  in  the  manners,  morals, 
habits  and  dress  of  all  who  came  to  the  general  meet- 
ings. At  these  meetings  Miss  Schofield,  who  was  host 
to  the  large  gathering,  made  up  of  delegates  from  each 
conference,  presided,  and  each  session  was  conducted  in 
a parliamentary  manner,  thus  educating  the  delegates 
in  the  matter  of  conducting  the  meetings  of  the  various 
local  conferences  to  the  best  advantage. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Miss  Schofield’s  activities 
embraced  a wide  range  of  influence  and  as  her  contem- 
plations, of  course,  extended  beyond  the  reach  of  actual 
performance  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  time  enough  from 
the  drudgery  of  work  in  her  school  was  never  found  for 
her  to  write  and  publish  a manuel  of  important  inform- 
ation for  the  guidance  and  direction  of  missionaries  in 
welfare  work.  It  is  an  extravagant  waste  of  any  sys- 
tem of  social  responsibility  to  permit  the  departure  of 
its  members  before  first  obtaining  for  all  time  the  entire 


'82 


Martha  Schofield. 


treasury  of  their  store  house  of  wisdom  and  compiling 
the  information  in  convenient  form  for  future  use. 

Miss  Schofield’s  organization  of  the  Negro  farmers 
into  clubs  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  helpfulness  indi- 
cates that  she  appreciated  the  fact  that  one  person  can 
do  but  little  within  herself  for  the  benefit  of  the  people, 
but  by  securing  their  cooperation  to  the  extent  of  get- 
ting them  to  practice  as  a whole  and  teach  in  unity  the 
things  most  needed  to  be  taught,  results  of  the  most  far- 
reaching  consequences  could  be  achieved.  She  was  a 
labor-unionist  with  most  practical  and  up-to-date  ideas. 

Much  of  what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  agricult- 
ural departments  of  some  of  the  States  and  by  the  Fed- 
eral Department  of  Agricultural  for  the  Negro  of  the 
cotton  district  is  directly  traceable  to  efforts  of  Miss 
Schofield,  the  pioneer  of  industrial  training  for  the  Ne- 
gro. Her  system  to  bring  the  methods  by  which  the  Ne- 
gro could  improve  his  condition  within  reach  of  all  ap- 
pears to  the  author  as  superior  in  practicability  to  any 
yet  advanced.  This  idea  of  carrying  to  the  people  sys- 
tems pregnant  with  practical  uses  for  the  regulation  o'f 
their  work  in  all  the  arts,  that  of  printing,  shoe  repair- 
ing, harness  making,  carpentering,  school  teaching,  and 
business  of  every  kind  contemplated  a unity  of  action 
by  each.  She  enjoined  as  she  taught  the  principle  illus- 
trated by  the  old  man  with  the  seven  sons  and  the  bun- 
dle of  sticks  a strict  regard  for  the  community  of  inter- 
est underlying  all  related  industry.  This  has  made  it 
possible  for  every  Negro  within  reach  of  her  influence 
to  have  gained  some  knowledge  of  a better  way  of  get- 
ting along  in  the  world,  and  combined  with  the  work 
which  is  being  done  and  has  been  done  already  by  other 
schools  and  colleges,  accounts  for  the  remarkable  devel- 
opment of  the  race  in  the  occupation  of  farming. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  thirteenth  census  of 
1910  there  were  920,883  colored  farmers  in  the  United 
States.  Twenty  six  and  two-tenths  per  cent,  of  these 
owned  their  farms,  and  73.60  per  cent,  constituted  rent- 
ers, while  2 per  cent,  managed  farms.  The  same  report 


Great  Progress  of  Negro. 


83 


also  shows  that  while  the  value  of  all  farm  property  of 
white  people  almost  doubled  between  the  years  of  1900 
and  1910,  the  value  of  all  farm  property  of  colored  peo- 
ple more  than  doubled,  to  be  exact,  showed  an  increase 
of  134  per  cent.  In  the  classes  of  property  reported, 
conspicuously  noticeable  is  the  increase  in  the  value  of 
live-stock.  The  increase  of  the  live  stock  of  the  whites 
showed  58.60  per  cent.,  while  that  of  the  Negroes 
showed  an  increase  of  105.50  per  cent.  In  the  value  of 
farm  buildings  the  percentage  of  increase  was  76.70  for 
the  whites  and  131.80  for  the  Negroes.  The  percentage 
of  increase  in  the  matter  of  improved  farm  implements 
and  machinery  was  60.80  per  cent,  for  the  whites  and 
81.70  per  cent,  for  the  Negroes. 

When  it  is  considered  that  the  Negro  has  had  at  his 
disposal  but  fifty  years  for  self-improvement^and  growth 
in  all  the  arts,  limited  in  the  pursuit  of  them  by  the  res- 
trictions placed  around  him  by  reason  of  his  race,  his 
progress  in  every  direction  except,  perhaps,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  the  right  of  suffrage,  becomes  more  than  remark- 
able— it  is  pkenominal,  especially  in  the  occupation  of 
farming,  to  which  he  is  unquestionably  better  adapted 
than  to  any  other  calling. 

In  the  matter  of  owners  of  homes  both  on  the  farm 
and  in  the  city,  the  Negroes,  those  who  did  and  those 
who  did  not  come  under  Miss  Schofield’s  instructions 
in  this,  “the  most  important  matter  of  their  lives,”  as 
she  often  told  her  students,  appear  from  the  1910  cen- 
sus, to  have  made  an  equally  creditable  showing.  In 
the  Southern  States  the  percentage  of  the  white  and  Ne- 
gro population  owning  their  homes,  was  white  50.50, 
Negro,  23.10  per  cent.  The  percentage  of  Negroes  who 
owned  their  homes  entirely,  without  encumbrance,  was 
18.10  per  cent. ; that  of  the  whites  39.50.  In  1900  the 
percentage  was,  whites  43.50;  Negroes  16.80.  It  will  be 
seen  from  the  official  figures  of  the  government  that  the 
percentage  of  whites  owning  their  homes  in  the  decade 
between  1900  and  1910  decreased  4 per  cent.,  while  the 
percentage  of  the  Negroes  increased  1.30  per  cent. 


84 


Martha  Schofield. 


If  the  Negroes  were  not  discriminated  against  in  the 
pursuit  of  their  occupations  in  the  cities;  if  they  were 
encouraged  to  buy  homes  and  beautify  and  improve 
them,  instead  of  being  discouraged  by  the  many  obsta- 
cles placed  in  their  way,  such  for  instance,  as  the  agita- 
tion by  some  of  the  best  white  people  not  to  rent  a home 
built  by  Negro  labor,  and  the  probability  of  another  riot 
such  as  that  in  Atlanta  in  1906,  it  is  entirely  within 
his  power  to  eclipse  any  race  of  men  the  Southern  white 
people  could  possibly  induce  to  come  and  make  homes 
among  them.  In  time  they  will  do  it  in  the  morality 
of  their  lives,  just  as  they  now  are  outstripping  the 
members  of  the  race  laying  claim  to  the  purest  blood 
that  ever  flowed  in  Aryan  veins,  in  the  art  of  farming. 

The  hope  of  the  race  lies  in  the  multiplication  of  the 
opportunities  for  every  member  to  obtain  an  education, 
such  an  education  as  Martha  Schofield  contemplated  for 
all;  and  the  demand  by  the  law  abiding,  God  serving 
element  of  the  white  race  that  the  colored  people  be 
given  every"  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  their  powers 
that  equity  and  justice  dictate.  The  Negroes  want 
nothing  more,  ask  nothing  more,  but  in  justice  to  their 
own  self  respect  and  the  rights  of  man  can  accept  noth- 
ing less. 

That  they  have  shown  themselves  worthy  of  freedom, 
which  certainly  cost  the  white  people  more  than  the  cost 
of  insuring  them  certain  inalienable  rights  will  entail, 
is  emphatically  indicated  by  comparison  of  Negro  per 
capita  property  with  that  of  the  freed  Russian  serfs  in 
1861,  two  years  before  the  emancipation  of  the  Negro. 
The  Russians  situated  in  the  most  fertile  sections  of  the 
Muscovite  empire,  numbering  over  14  millions,  have  in 
the  same  time  it  has  taken  the  Negroes  to  accumulate 
700  million  dollars  worth  of  property  but  500  million 
dollars  in  property.  The  accumulations  of  the  two  peo- 
ples freed  at  about  the  same  time  are  $70  per  capita  for 
the  Negro  and  $36.00  for  the  Russians.  In  the  same 
Russian  province  only  30  per  cent,  of  the  serfs  can  read 


Great  Progress  of  Negro. 


85 


and  write,  while  in  the  United  States  61  per  cent,  of  the 
Negroes  can  read  and  write. 

Yet  in  the  face  of  this  wonderful  development  of  the 
race ; in  opposition  to  the  aspirations  necessary  to  make 
achievements  of  this  kind  possible,  there  is  race  preju- 
dice, degradation  and  humiliation.  This  is  doing  more 
to  produce  poverty  among  both  races  and  hold  in  check 
the  progress  of  a great  section  of  the  country  than  all 
the  other  agencies  for  evil  combined. 

The  remedy  for  this  will  perhaps  be  found  in  the  edu- 
cation of  the  whites,  stimulation  in  this  direction  being 
assured  by  both  the  compulsory  school  attendance  laws 
being  passed,  and  the  rivalry  in  education  between  the 
races  already  set  in  motion  by  the  Negroes. 

Almost  two  million  colored  children  are  enrolled  in 
the  normal  schools  and  colleges.  There  are  35,000  col- 
ored teachers  now  actively  engaged  in  the  common 
schools  and  about  four  thousand  professors  in  the  col- 
leges and  normal  and  industrial  institutions.  The  value 
of  the  property  devoted  to  education  of  the  Negro  is 
nearly  twenty  million  dollars.  There  was  expended  in 
1915  nearly  $5,0Q0,000  for  the  higher  and  industrial 
training  of  the  race  while  $10,000,000  was  spent  on 
elementary  instructions  in  the  common  schools.  The 
stimulating  effect  which  these  figures  should  have  and, 
undoubtedly  will  have  on  the  education  of  the  whites 
will  serve  to  increase  very  largely  the  facilities  for  their 
education,  which  is  the  remedy  most  needed,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  leading  white  people,  as  well  as  the  author, 
for  the  dissipation  of  much  of  the  race  prejudice  respon- 
sible for  the  passage  of  a great  number  of  discriminatory 
laws  and  for  the  arbitrary  execution  of  those  having  a 
discriminating  effect  in  their  operation,  if  not  in  their 
wording.  This  enlightening  information,  however,  con- 
cerning the  facilities  for  the  education  of  the  Negro  is 
very  much  offset  by  the  announcement  that  the  number 
not  in  school  in  the  South  is  greater  than  the  number  in 
school. 

There  are  2,000,000  Negro  children  of  school  age  in 


86 


Martha  Schofield. 


the  South  not  in  school.  Let  all  who  would  aid  in  the 
solution  of  the  Negro  problem  find  a means  of  reaching 
these  2,000,000  blacks  by  the  school,  and  the  neglected 
ignorant  whites,  in  self-defense,  will  be  forced  into  the 
school  room.  Give  the  black  child  $10.23  per  capita  in- 
stead of  $2.82  now  allotted  for  its  education,  raise  the 
per  capita  to  that  spent  for  the  education  of  the  white 
child,  and  the  white  people  will  then  double  the  money 
for  the  education  of  their  children.  This  would  raise 
the  expenditures  for  Negro  education  in  the  common 
schools  of  the  South  to  about  $35,000,000  annually,  and 
this  amount  is  actually  needed  in  putting  the  two  mil- 
lion out  of  school  in  school  and  stirring  the  whites  to 
greater  activity  in  the  education  of  their  own  race. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Matilda  and  Leslie  Call. 

At  the  close  of  one  of  the  first  meetings  of  the  farmer’s 
conference  in  Schofield  chapel  at  which  was  discussed 
more  than  anything  else  the  growing  friction  between 
the  white  and  colored  people,  there  called  at  the  Scho- 
field school  a young  woman,  accompanied  by  a man 
about  her  age,  and  each  appeared  to  be  exhausted  from 
travel  and  greatly  excited  from  some  cause  or  other,  no 
one  knew  just  what. 

It  was  Matilda  Deas  and  Leslie  Duncan,  the  two 
young  lovers  who  had  escaped  from  Millard  Dodson  a 
few  days  before  and  left  him  and  his  horse  tied  securely 
in  the  woods. 

The  story  of  how  the  young  man  had  been  given  a race 
for  his  life  at  the  hands  of  a mob  and  how  the  young 
woman  had  escaped  the  lust  and  power  of  the  beastly 
Dodson  only  after  her  life  had  been  despoiled  by  him 
and  of  the  circumstances  attending  the  stabbing  of  the 
young  Dodson  boy,  greatly  affected  Miss  Schofield,  and 
with  all  her  heart  she  sympatized  with  the  poor  helpless 
Negroes.  Yet  she  knew  that  the  concealment  and  pro- 
tection of  the  boy  meant  the  lighting  of  the  bomb  manu- 
factured by  the  Dodsons  to  produce  the  explosion  of  race 
prejudice  that  the  ignorant  white  people  so  much  de- 
sired. She  did  not  light  it,  but  instead  drove  to  the 
scene  of  the  disturbance  and  ascertained  personally  the 
truth  about  the  whole  matter,  as  well  as  the  seriousness 
of  the  situation  to  the  whole  Negro  population.  On  re- 
turning she  informed  young  Duncan  that  it  would  be 
very  unwise,  and  exceedingly  unjust  to  the  thousands  of 
others  of  his  race,  for  her  to  conceal  him  on  the  school 
premises  as  the  inflamatory  conditions  worked  up  among 
the  people  by  the  Dodsons  demanded  nothing  less  than 
his  life  if  his  whereabouts  became  known  and,  perhaps, 
by  her  intercession  in  his  behalf  would  mean  the  exten- 
sion of  it  to  include  others  of  his  people  and  so  cause  the 
death  of  many  instead  of  only  one.  But  she'  promised 


88 


Martha  Schofield. 


him  absolute  protection,  even  at  the  cost  of  her  school 
and  all  its  property  until  communication  with  the  organ- 
ized authorities  of  the  County  and  State  could  be  had, 
and  substantial  guarantees  were  given  by  these  that  his 
life  would  be  safe  and  he  be  given  a fair  trial  on  the 
charges  laid  against  him. 

In  due  time  the  contingencies  for  the  trial  were  ar- 
ranged and  Leslie  was  delivered  up  to  the  Sheriff  of  the 
County,  who  took  him  to  jail  to  await  the  action  of  the 
Court,  which  would  be  determined  largely  by  the  result 
of  the  injuries  suffered  by  the  Dodson  child.  Under 
direction  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  a sufficient  guard 
had  been  placed  around  the  jail  for  the  protection  of 
the  prisoner  at  all  hazards.  This  was  done  at  the  in- 
sistence of  Miss  Schofield  whose  influence  with  the  head 
of  the  Democratic  Party  in  power  was  great  only  be- 
cause of  her  influence  at  the  North  in  the  passage  of 
measures  of  a conciliatory  nature  in  reconstructing  the 
States  of  the  South.  It  was  of  little  or  no  consequence 
to  the  ruling  element  whether  Duncan  was  lynched  or 
not,  except  in  so  far  as  his  murder  might  retard  the  pro- 
gress the  whites  were  making  in  gaining  favor  with  the 
reactionaries  in  Congress. 

While  abundant  evidence  was  introduced  at  the  trial 
to  justify  the  actions  of  Leslie  in  stabbing  Willie  Dod- 
son, no  weight  or  consideration  whatever  was  given  it  by 
the  perjured  members  of  the  jury,  all  having  formed  an 
opinion  before  the  trial  that  the  “nigger”  would  get  off 
light  if  he  escaped  with  his  life.  After  being  in  the  jury 
room  but  three  minutes  the  talesman  returned  with  the 
results  of  their  brief  deliberations  summed  up  in  one 
word,  “Guilty.” 

That,  of  course,  was  the  verdict.  No  recommenda- 
tion to  mercy  out  of  consideration  of  the  age  of  the 
youthful  prisoner  or  the  acknowledged  great  provoca- 
tion under  which  the  act  was  committed. 

When  replying  “No,  sir”  to  the  question  as  to  wheth- 
er he  had  anything  to  say  why  sentence  should  not  be 
passed  upon  him  the  Court  promptly  replied  that  it  cer- 


Matilda  and  Leslie  Call. 


89 


tainly  had  and  proceeded  to  say  it  in  these  words,  “I 
wish  you  were  of  age,  Leslie,  that  I might  give  you  the 
full  benefit  of  the  law  on  this  charge,  one  of  a most  seri- 
ous nature,  murder  with  intent-  to  kill.  But  on  account 
of  your  youth,  out  of  mercy  of  the  Court,  I will  make  the 
sentence  as  light  as  possible.  You  are  sentenced  to  five 
years  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  at  hard  labor.” 

At  the  same  moment  the  Clerk  of  the  Court  was  or- 
dered to  record  another  charge  against  the  prisoner, 
that  of  violating  a contract  for  the  performance  of  labor 
and  directed  that  a warrant  be  served  on  the  boy  at  the 
expiration  of  his  term. 

Miss  Schofield  returned  to  her  school  and  consoled 
Matilda  with  the  story  of  the  old  servant  who  was 
hanged  for  the  loss  of  a costly  necklace  of  beads  from 
the  household  in  which  she  had  been  intrusted  with  the 
property  of  her  mistress.  “Some  years  after  the  execu- 
tion of  the  faithful  maid,”  said  Miss  Schofield,  “a  bolt 
of  lightning  from  the  sky  struck  one  of  the  monuments 
on  the  public  square  near  the  home  and  burst  it  into 
fragments  and  there  in  the  center,  in  a magpie’s  nest 
lay  the  necklace,  in  all  its  parts,  just  as  it  was  on  the 
day  the  bird,  instead  of  the  old  servant  had  stolen  it 
away.  The  lady  who  prosecuted  the  maid  for  the  theft 
stated  to  the  judges  who  heard  the  case  that  she  would 
be  satisfied  with  nothing  but  the  death  of  the  prisoner 
unless  she  divulged  the  hiding  place  of  the  jewels,  com- 
mitted suicide  by  swallowing  poison  on  learning  of  the 
fatal  mistake  in  the  execution  of  poor  Jeannie  Junne, 
for  that  was  her  name. 

“So  you  see  my  friends,”  concluded  the  brilliant  story 
teller,  for  such  Miss  Schofield  was  when  she  had  occa- 
sion to  be,  “God  never  permits  the  infliction  of  great  in- 
justices, such  as  this  which  has  happened  to  Leslie  and 
you,  without  exposing  them  and  compeling  those  res- 
ponsible for  them  to  repent  of  their  sins.” 

Miss  Schofield  knew  the  heart  of  the  Negroes  better 
than  they  themselves  knew  them  and  this  knowledge 
served  her  well  in  all  her  dealings  with  them.  In  the 


90 


Martha  Schofield. 


control  of  them  she  knew  just  when  to  use  harshness 
and  to  what  extent  and  equally  well  she  knew  when 
other  , means  would  prove  more  availing.  The  simple, 
child-like,  trusting  faith  common  to  all  colored  people, 
she  realized  this  faith  would  cause  her  story  to  find  a 
lasting  lodgment  and  would  prove  a source  of  genuine 
consolation  to  Matilda  in  her  hour  of  despair,  and  so  it 
proved  to  be,  not  only  for  the  moment,  but  throughout 
the  whole  long  period  of  Leslie’s  confinement.  When- 
ever reference  to  him  was  made  she  would  in  her  simple 
way  show  that  she  understood  clearly  that  God  never 
allowed  people  to  suffer  without  compensating  them  for 
it ; that  He  also  punished  those  responsible  for  the  mis- 
ery of  others.  The  latter  contingency,  Miss  Schofield 
had  taught  her  was  a necessary  condition  in  nature  fixed 
there  by  God  for  the  protection  of  men  in  all  their  hu- 
man relations,  and  was  as  inevitable  as  fate  itself. 

What  an  immensely  valuable  doctrine  for  the  control 
of  the  passions  of  men,  especially  those  of  a lowly  race, 
steeped  in  ignorance  and  allowed  a free  reign  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  more  vicious  instincts. 

Make  them  afraid  to  do  wrong;  not  indeed  afraid  of 
man’s  law  but  an  eternal  law  which  is  irrevocable  even 
by  God  himself.  It  was  the  doctrine,  believed  in  to  the 
depths  of  his  soul,  that  inspired  the  immortal  Georgi- 
an, Alex  H.  Stephens,  to  exclaim  that  he  was  afraid  of 
nothing  above  eartli  or  below  it  except  to  do  wrong. 

When  one  reaches  this  stage  of  belief  it  is  not  a diffi- 
cult matter  to  induce  him  to  begin  doing  right  for  right- 
eousness sake  only.  He  has  already  conceived  firmly 
the  fact  that  only  virtue  is  any  just  reward  for  being 
virtuous.  The  bribes  offered" men  for  being  good  in  the 
shape  of  escape  from  earthly  punishment  and  the  hope 
of  earthly  blessings  are  wholly  inadequate  to  restrain 
them  from  evil  as  is  proven  by  the  many  artifices  resort- 
ed to  in  concealing  crimes;  but  when  they  are  made  to 
see  that  only  righteous  living  can  produce  real  happi- 
ness and  that  there  is  absolutely  no  way  of  concealing 
the  evidences  of  evil  doing,  substantial  progress  has 


Matilda  and  Leslie  Call. 


91 


been  made  in  their  reformation.  They  will  not  do 
wrong,  wilfully,  because,  as  Miss  Schofield  always 
taught,’  the  wrong  done  will  show  eternally  in  their 
faces  every  time  they  look  in  the  glass. 

Miss  Schofield  never  permitted  opportunities  to  im- 
press and  teach  great  moral  truths  to  pass  by  unim- 
proved. Living  on  them  herself  she  depended  upon 
them  entirely  to  support  her  work  which  was  her  life  in 
itself.  The  great  Normal  and  Industrial  school  at  Aik- 
en is  Martha  Schofield  reincarnated  out  and  out.  The 
lifeless  body  has  been  taken  and  carried  away  but  the 
spirit  which  is  of  God,  still  lingers  on  and  around  all 
the  place,  crying  out  aloud  as  of  yore  for  the  perfection 
of  those  means  of  justice  and  freedom  of  action  in  both 
body  and  mind  that  alone  can  make  life  ideal  and  our 
work  eternal. 

On  the  occasion  of  her  visit  to  the  home  of  Allen  Dod- 
son for  the  purpose  of  securing  his  endorsement  to  the 
petition  for  the  pardon  of  Leslie  Duncan,  she  was  re- 
ceived with  scant  courtesy  by  Mrs.  Dodson,  who  strange 
to  say,  bore  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  zeal- 
ous and  faithful  followers  of  Christ  in  Lick  Skillet 
neighborhood.  Indeed  she  was  president  of  the  local 
Mary  Magdalene  Missionary  Society  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church,  and  besides  had  been  honored  by  the  nation- 
al president  of  her  society  with  appointment  to  the  po- 
sition of  treasurer  in  the  national  association  of  Mary 
Magdaleners.  Throughout  the  community  and  in 
church  and  benevolent  circles  all  over  the  State  and 
country  she  was  well  and  favorably  known.  At  home 
she  was  regarded  as  the  pillar  of  the  Baptist  church 
and  an  unselfish  and  philanthropic  soul  in  whose  lead- 
ership the  community  could  rely  with  perfect  confidence 
that  the  work  of  salvation  was  abreast  of  that  in  any 
other  community  of  like  population  in  the  whole  moral 
vineyard  of  Christ. 

Seating  Miss  Schofield  in  the  parlor  while  she  waited 
on  the  return  of  Mr.  Dodson,  other  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  the  house  engaged  the  attention  of  Mrs.  Dod- 


92 


Martha  Schofield. 


son.  She  left  her  visitor  to  entertain  herself  as  best  she 
might,  placing  within  her  reach  a few  religious  periodi- 
cals and  a library  of  perhaps  a dozen  or  more  books, 
mostly  of  Baptist  denominational  interest,  especially 
devoted  to  the  work  of  that  church  in  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary field. 

Mr.  Dodson’s  refusal  to  sign  the  petition  on  his  re- 
turn, did  not  shock  Miss  Schofield’s  sensibilities  of  the 
injustices  of  race  hatred  nearly  so  much  as  the  ignor- 
ance with  which  Mrs.  Dodson  maintained  her  position 
of  missionary  worker  in  an  enlightened  church  support- 
ed by  an  intelligent  and  supposedly  cultured  member- 
ship. 

After  Mr.  Dodson  had  given  his  reasons,  which  were 
like  hunting  mustard  seeds  in  a hay  stack  and  if  found 
was  never  worth  the  search,  for  his  refusal  to  lend  his 
assistance  to  the  righting  of  the  wrongs  done  Leslie 
Duncan,  Mrs.  Dodson  interposed  herself  into  the  con- 
versation to  inquire  of  Miss  Schofield  why  she  was  so 
interested  in  the  Negroes  as  to  live  and  work  wholly 
among  them  as  if  she  were  one  of  them  herself. 

“I  am  very  much  obliged  to  thee  for  the  opportunity 
to  answer  that  question,”  said  Miss  Schofield  in  reply. 

“Thou  must  see  that  the  condition  of  the  Negro  is 
such  that  none,  or  few  of  them  at  this  time,  is  able  to 
lead  the  race  as  it  should  be  led.  Only  a small  percent- 
age can  either  read  or  write;  the  most  primitive  methods 
of  making  a livelihood  prevail  among  them  and  as  a re- 
sult their  lives,  their  morals  and  their  hopes  for  the  fu- 
ture are  in  jeopardy.  I most  desire  to  do  a little  part 
in  improving  the  conditions  among  them,  in  making 
their  lives  better  and  happier  by  my  having  lived.  I 
firmly  believe  if  I succeed  in  doing  so,  thee  and  all  thy 
people  will  be  equally  blessed.” 

“To  the  mischief  with  such  doctrine,”  retorted  Mrs. 
Dodson.  “It  is  such  as  you  that  are  putting  foolish  no- 
tions in  the  heads  of  these  darkies,  creating  in  them  a 
hope  for  an  equality  and  a social  relation  repugnant  to 
the  sense  of  all  decent  people  entitled  to  the  benefits  of 


Matilda  and  Leslie  Call. 


93 


a superior  civilization,  and  I want  to  tell  you  that  if 
another  war  comes  it  will  come  as  a result  of  your  work. 

“You  had  better  stop  it  and  go  back  to  your  home  and 
let  the  Negroes  teach  themselves.  If  they  have  been  too 
lazy  and  stupid  to  enlighten  themselves  in  the  past  it  is 
quite  likely  such  will  not  be  the  case  in  future  in  this 
free  country  along  by  the  side  of  a superior  race  from 
whom  they  can,  if  they  will,  gain  all  the  instruction  they 
need  for  self  improvement  by  observation.” 

Miss  Schofield  assured  her  that  the  question  of  social 
equality  with  the  whites  was  never  considered  by  her  in 
her  work  except  to  disparage  it;  that  while  she  had  no 
regard  herself  for  the  color  of  a person’s  skin  she  taught 
her  students  that  a deep  racial  prejudice  existed  among 
all  races  everywhere,  espc-ially  in  the  United  States,  but 
that  it  should  not  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  their 
Christianity,  that  they  should  show  a Christian  spirit 
to  all  mankind — Jew  or  Greek,  male  or  female,  friend 
or  foe,  Negro  or  white. 

“Does  not  the  Bible  command  thee,”  questioned  Miss 
Schofield,  “to  go  into  all  the  world  and  teach  all  na- 
tions?” Does  thee,  then,  not  feel  that  the  Negro  is  one 
of  those  to  whom  thou  art  commanded  to  extend  thy  in- 
struction? 

“Feeling  and  knowing  absolutely  that  He  is  I came  to 
the  South  many  years  ago  to  fill  one  of  the  command- 
ments of  my  Lord.  As  a Christian  woman,  which  I 
know  thee  to  be,  else  the  literature  of  thy  home  belies 
the  character  of  this  house,  I ask  thee  to  answer  me  be- 
fore God  if  thee  still  considers  that  my  work  is  produc- 
tive of  harmful  results  and  if  it  should  be  given  up  and 
I go  back  home  in  my  prime  and  live  a life  of  indolence, 
ease  and  nothingness.” 

Mrs.  Dodson  was  greatly  perplexed.  Miss  Schofield 
convicted  her  of  her  neglect  of  duty  in  her  own  country, 
where  as  well  as  in  for  off  China  and  Japan,  it  was  ad- 
mittedly very  necessary  to  do  missionary  work;  but  she 
hid  as  best  she  could  the  influence  of  the  speaker’s  re- 
buke and  called  attention  to  the  thousands  of  dollars 


94 


Martha  Schofield. 


being  spent  by  her  society  in  tbe  cause  of  home  missions. 
When  pressed  for  a single  school  being  maintained  by 
that  association  in  the  interest  of  the  Negro  children  or 
the  expenditure  of  as  much  as  a penny  for  the  relief  of 
the  material  needs  of  the  race,  she  expressed  consid- 
erable anger  and  stated  that  the  taxes  paid  by  the 
whites  were  adequate  for  the  education  of  the  colored 
people  and  for  the  support  of  the  indigent  among  them. 

Among  the  most  versatile  as  well  as  resourceful  wo- 
men who  ever  came  South  to  teach  Miss  Schofield  was 
well  fortified  with  facts  to  meet  Mrs.  Dodson’s  excuse 
•for  the  indifference  of  her  society  to  the  need  of  the  Ne- 
gro. She  showed  her  that  not  only  was  the  common 
school  fund  wholly  inadequate  for  the  education  of  the 
white  children  but  that  there  was  absolutely  no  justice 
in  its  distribution — that  the  whites  gave  the  Negroes 
just  as  little  of  it  as  possible  and  dignified  it  as  “hush- 
mouth”  money.  She  cited  instances  calling  names, 
dates  and  places  which  proved  conclusively  that  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Southern  white  people  for  the  education  of 
the  Negro  was  a farce  pure  and  simple,  in  that  there 
was  not  only  no  pretence  at  all  at  an  equitable  distri- 
bution of  the  school  funds,  but  no  regard  whatever  was 
had  as  to  the  proper  qualification  of  Negro  teachers. 
She  intimated  that  favor  was  shown  by  the  whites  to  the 
less  capable  and  least  deserving  of  the  Negroes  as  teach- 
ers, and  sought  to  close  the  argument  by  impressing  the 
fact,  that  where  conditions  obtain  like  those  in  the 
South,  there  is  where  the  Master’s  work  calls  loudest, 
according  to  the, teachings  of  her  own  church. 

Stung  to  the 'quick  by  the  truth  of  these  statements 
Mrs.  Dodson  was  willing  enough  to  terminate  the  con- 
versation, and  apparently  with  middling  right  good 
cheer  bade  her  visitor  “good  day”  and  set  about  the 
work  of  her  household. 

But  Martha  Schofield  had  made  an  impression  on  her. 
She  had  been  made  to  feel  the  hypocracy  of  her  position 
for  the  first  time  in  the  new  relations  between  the  two 
races,  a position  wholly  incompatible  with  the  teach- 


Matilda  and  Leslie  Call. 


95 


ings  of  Christ.  It  started  her  to  reasoning,  that  if  from 
a selfish  point  of  view  if  not  from  a Christian  stand- 
point, it  were  not  better  to  encourage  the  work  of  Miss 
Schofield.  She  was  not  an  ignorant  woman,  but  on  the 
contrary  highly  intellectual,  and  although  but  superfi- 
cially educated  was  well  enough  inwormed  to  know  that 
the  Negro  was  here  and  here,  perhaps,  to  stay.  “Then 
why,”  she  silently  asked  herself,  “would  not  one’s 
greatest  defense  and  security  be  more  certainly  attained 
in  the  development  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  powers 
of  the  race?”  She  had  been  teaching  all  her  life  that 
to  give  was  more  blessed  than  to  receive;  then  why  not 
give  to  the  needy  Negro  right  at  her  door?  Why  not 
stimulate  and  encourage  every  effort  being  made  to  con- 
vert him  into  a useful  and  intelligent  citizen?  His  la- 
bor she  knew,  even  though  his  hands  and  face  were 
black,  would  be  worth  a thousand  per  cent,  more  if  it 
were  skilled.  Besides,  that  thought  of  blessings  being 
twice  blest — “blessing  him  that  gives  and  him  that 
takes” — continually  haunted  her. 

Such  a marked  change  was  apparent  in  her  attitude 
toward  foreign  missions  at  the  next  meeting  of  her  so- 
ciety after  Miss  Schofield’s  visit  that  her  fidelity  to  the 
cause  was  severely  questioned  by  others  of  the  faithful, 
from  whom  she  concealed  well  the  cause  of  her  new  de- 
votion to  the  home  missionary  field.  She  told  them  that 
they  should  seek  to  do  all  they  could  for  the  heathen  in 
foreign  lands  but  that  their  ability  to  extend  their  use- 
fulness in  that  direction  was  now  limited  by  the  newly 
enforced  political  and  social  conditions  at  home.  She 
suggested  that  the  society  consider  the  matter  of  ex- 
pending as  much  of  its  funds  at  home  as  abroad,  elab- 
orating upon  the  great  necessity  for  the  industrial  train- 
ing of  the  Negro,  and  the  education  of  the  thousands 
of  white  children  in  this  country,  whose  school  term  at 
the  time  was  not  in  excess  of  three  months  out  of  twelve, 
for  want  of  funds. 

This  met  the  approval  of  all  members,  as  all  of  Mrs. 
Dodson’s  propositions  usually  did,  and  a resolution  set- 


96 


Martha  Schofield. 


ting  forth  the  fact  that  the  sentiment  of  the  Mary  Mag- 
dalene Society  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Lick  Skil- 
let was  in  favor  of  the  equal  division  of  the  funds  be- 
tween -the  Foreign  and  Home  Mission  Boards  of  the  Na- 
tional Missionary  Association  was  unanimously  passed. 

A few  days  later  Allen  Dodson  accompanied  by  Mil- 
lard, his  son,  called  at  the  Schofield  school  and  ex- 
pressed a desire  to  sign  the  petition  for  the  pardon  of 
Leslie  Duncan  who  had  now  begun  serving  the  third  of 
a five  year  sentence  given  him  for  stabbing  Mr.  Dodson’s 
little  son,  Willie. 

This  completed  the  requirements  of  the  pardoning 
board,  and  as  soon  as  their  signatures  were  affixed  the 
document  was  sent  by  Miss  Schofield  to  the  governor 
who  immediately  ordered  the  prisoner  released. 

Hundreds  of  instances  might  be  mentioned  where  this 
great  woman  took  the  burdens  of  others  on  herself  at 
times  when  she  was  already  over  burdened  with  her  own 
work,  and  rendered  them  a service  which  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  been  accomplished  without  her  aid. 

When  Leslie  appeared  at  the  Schofield  school  after 
his  release  from  prison  to  thank  Miss  Schofield  for  her 
kindness  to  him  and  to  claim  Matilda  for  his  wife,  Miss 
Schofield  ordered  him  arrested  on  the  charge  docketed 
by  the  Judge  at  the  time  of  his  fofimer  conviction,  that 
of  a breach  of  contract. 

When  the  trial  was  called  the  Dodson  family  failed 
to  appear  against  the  prisoner  and  the  prosecution  was 
abandoned. 

Thus  through  the  power  and  magnetism  of  Miss  Scho- 
field, was  the  influence  and  good-will  of  a large  and  in- 
fluential white  family  secured  for  the  benefit  of  the  Ne- 
gro population  of  Lick  Skillet  neighborhood,  at  least. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Lynching  of  Negroes. 

Miss  Schofield  had  great  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
conversion  of  the  white  people  of  the  South  to  the  cause 
which  she  represented  and  looked  to  the  support  of  her 
work  by  them  as  one  of  the  essentials  to  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  highest  success.  She,  however,  went  about 
securing  the  cooperation  of  the  whites  in  a manner  en- 
tirely different  from  the  means  employed  by  Booker  T. 
Washington  in  accomplishing  the  same  end.  She  drew 
attention  of  the  white  people  to  the  necessity  for  her 
work  by  making  them  mad;  by  expressing  to  them  the 
inconsistencies  of  their  position  on  the  race  question 
and  demonstrating  to  them  the  hypocrisy  of  their  ac- 
tions, she  caused  a great  deal  to  be  done  for  the  Negroes 
that  would  have  been  delayed  for  years  had  more  per- 
suasive measures  been  taken  to  reach  them.  She  told 
the  Christian  missionary  workers  that  the  presence  of 
the  Negroes  here  provided  the  best  means  possible  for 
them  to  show  by  actual  demonstration  rather  than  by 
words  of  mouth,  tongue  or  pen,  that  Christianity  was 
literally  and  figuratively  true.  That  it  really  did  mean 
the  showering  of  blessings  on  men  of  all  kinds  and  races. 
“If  the  Negro  is  an  enemy”  she  told  them,  show  the  be- 
nighted heathen  here  and  carry  the  message  to  his 
friends  in  China  that  thee  love  thine  enemy.  By  your 
actions  before  his  eyes  here  in  this  country  prove  to  him 
that  thee  are  the" people  that  tell  the  truth;  that  Chris- 
tians will  not  take  advantage  of  even  Negroes;  that  thee 
are  patient,  kind  and  generous  in  thy  dealings  with 
that  part  of  thy  own  populatoin  that  is  ignorant  and 
benighted.  Above  all  prove  to  him  by  thy  treatment 
of  the  Negro  that  thee  has  no  prejudice  on  account  of 
race,  color  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  Let  them 
see  by  thy  relation  to  the  Negroes  that  thee  looks  upon 
mankind  as  brethren,  indeed,  in  whose  service  thee  are 
not  only  vailing  to  work  but  to  suffer  for  the  good  thee 
may  do  not  alone  to  the  Negro  but  to  the  heathen  as 
well.” 


98 


Martha  Schofield. 


She  went  to  the  intelligent,  cultured  white  people, 
leaders  of  the  churches,  schools  and  Southern  civiliza- 
tion itself,  all  that  she  could  reach,  and  told  them  plain- 
ly and  bluntly  that  any  course  other  than  that  outlined 
would  surely  bring  Christianity  into  disrepute,  especi- 
ally if  they  themselves  approved  a different  course,  or 
permitted  a different  course  to  be  pursued  without  their 
protest.  She  showed  them  their  responsibility  and 
their  duty  both  as  a Christian  and  a member  of  civil- 
ized society,  and  left  them  without  a single  prop  upon 
which  to  stand  in  defense  of  the  position  taken  to  keep 
the  Negro  down. 

Having  no  patience  with  anyone  who  for  gain  would 
sacrifice  righteousness  or  who  would  not  suffer  pain 
that  justice  be  done  she  was  rather  uncharitable  in  her 
criticisms  of  the  Southern  white  people.  But  the  stern- 
ness and  rough,  rugged  honesty  and  sincerity  she  used 
in  expressing  her  convictions  appealed  to  them,  as  they 
are  a people  essentially  frank  in  their  manners  and  ac- 
tions. One  of  the  great  men  in  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate from  the  South  lias  won  and  retained  the  respect  of 
the  people  of  the  whole  country  by  reason  of  his  frank- 
ness on  this  question  of  race  prejudice.  His  radicalism 
is  common  to  most  of  the  people  of  the  South  and  see- 
ing this  characteristic  of  the  people,  Miss  Schofield  pan- 
dered to  it  early  in  her  work  and  drew  to  herself  a large 
measure  and  esteem  and  respect  that  could  have  been 
earned  in  no  other  way.  She  made  people  respect  her 
by  respecting  herself  in  holding  fast  to  her  conception 
of  the  principles  of  honesty. 

Miss  Schofield  was  not  less  severe  on  the  people  of 
the  North  than  of  the  South  in  her  arraignment  of  the 
prostitution  of  the  power  of  government  in  permitting 
the  commission  of  outrages  and  injustices  to  go  unpun- 
ished. In  assailing  the  sin  of  race  prejudice  and  hy- 
pocrisy in  the  Southern  people  she  was  assailing  With 
equal  force  the  same  thing  wherever  it  existed  and  as 
it  is  more  prevalent  at  the  North  that  section  of  the 
country  really  received  the  burden  of  her  denunciation. 


Lynching  of  Negroes. 


99 


The  fact  that  the  power  to  punish  the  crimes  against 
the  Negro  race  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the 
North  but  was  seldom  exercised,  gave  her  greater  cause 
for  denouncing  her  folks,  which  she  did  unmercifully. 
She  felt  that  the  crime  of  lynching  Negroes  could  be 
largely  suppressed  by  the  Federal  authorities  and  was 
not  reluctant  in  advocating  the  intercession  of  the  gen- 
eral government  in  the  enforcement  of  the  Federal  stat- 
utes guaranteeing  every  citizen  the  protection  of  life 
and  liberty,  even  if  “States’  Rights”  were  trampled  un- 
der foot.  Being  absolutely  honest  in  all  her  promises 
she  did  not  look  for  dishonesty  in  others,  especially  not 
in  the  people  of  the  North  who  had  spilled  so  much 
blood  and  expended  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  in 
extending  the  guarantee  of  life,  freedom  and  liberty  to 
the  Negroes.  Their  failure  to  make  their  promises  in 
this  matter  good  was  shocking  to  her  sense  of  honor  and 
inspired  her  greatest  contempt. 

In  words  of  eloquence,  made  eloquent  by  both  the 
truth  in  them  and  the  manner  of  delivery,  she  told  the 
people  of  the  North  that  the  rights  of  man  rose  above 
the  rights  of  state  government  as  the  Alps  rise  above 
the  valleys;  that  government,  both  state  and  national, 
is  only  good  in  so  far  as  if  respects  and  protects  human 
rights.  “If  a state  government  fails  to  measure  up  to 
its  duty  in  its  functions  affecting  the  most  vital  rights 
of  the  people,”  said  she  in  an  address  in  the  North, 
“then  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  general  government 
to  interfere.  If  the  latter,  likewise  fails  then.it  is  the 
duty  of  the  people  to  overthrow  it,  not,  indeed,  by  pow- 
der and  shot  and  shell  but  by  the  votes  of  citizens. 

“But  in  the  South  thousands  and  thousands  entitled 
to  vote  under  authority  of  the  general  government  are 
disfranchised;  their  rights  are  not  being  respected  by 
either  the  general  government  or  the  state.  If  this  is 
permitted  to  continue  thee  can  not  respect  thyself,  much 
less  expect  those  perpetrating  the  fraud  to  respect  thee. 
During  the  last  quarter  of  a century  the  number  of 
deaths  at  the  hands  of  mobs  in  this  country  has  averaged 


100 


Martha  Schofield. 


184  annually,  eighty  to  ninety  per  cent,  of  which  has  oc- 
curred in  the  South. 

“Can  thee  respect  thyself  or  expect  the  respect  of  the 
Southerners  if  these  crimes  are  allowed  to  go  unpun- 
ished? 

“If  the  government  of  the  several  States  were  sin- 
cere in  the  representations  of  their  attempt  at  govern- 
ment that  would  not  be  any  excuse  for  no  action  being 
taken  by  the  general  government.  Failure  to  govern 
is  alone  sufficient  for  action. 

“We  can  not  permit  incompetency  to  triumph  on  the 
basis  that  the  rulers  of  the  South  are  sincere  in  their 
attempts  at  law  enforcement.  Too  much  emphasis  can 
not  be  laid  on  this  fact.  Respect  for  the  law  must  be 
demanded  and  enforced  at  all  hazards. 

“The  spread  of  lynch  law  all  over  the  land  may  be 
looked  for  if  this  is  done.” 

How  prophetic  these  words  uttered  years  ago  as  the 
records  kept  will  show. 

Before  the  war  and  immediately  after,  Negroes  were 
now  and  then  put  to  death  but  the  law  was  generally 
allowed  to  take  its  course. 

For  rape  or  attempted  rape  there  were  only  four  Ne- 
groes lynched  between  the  years  1830  and  1840.  It  was 
not  until  1850  to  1860  that  lynch  law  attained  any  high 
degree  of  danger  to  the  success  of  free  government.  Out 
of  forty-six  Negroes  put  to  death  during  this  time, 
twenty-six  were  lynched  and  twenty  legally  executed. 
Nine  of  those  destroyed  by  mobs  were  burned  at  the 
stake.  The  crimes  with  which  they  were  charged  were 
murders  of  owners  and  overseers.  It  does  not  appear 
that  rape,  which  is  now  made  the  cause  of  nearly  every 
lynching  was  very  frequent  before  the  war. 

It  has  become  the  cause  or  the  alleged  cause  of  mob 
violence  only  since  the  year  1871  to  any  great  extent. 

Had  Martha  Schofield’s  suggestion  for  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  national  government  in  the  enforcement  of 
the  laws  of  the  country  wherever  the  State  proved  in- 
efficient to  do  so  been  adopted  and  put  into  practice,  the 


Lynching  of  Negroes. 


101 


shame  and  disgrace  which  now  attaches  to  American 
civilization  would  have  no  basis  or  foundation.  There 
would  not  be  as  many  orphans  as  there  are ; there  would 
not  be  the  humiliation  and  injustices  that  there  are; 
neither  would  there  be  the  poverty  and  misery  among 
the  blacks  and  whites  that  there  are; 

The  remissness  of  the  national  government  to  super- 
vise wisely  the  execution  of  the  laws  has  permitted  the 
officials  to  do  what  they  accuse  the  Negro  of  desiring 
to  do,  to  take  a foot  for  every  inch  and  a mile  for  every 
yard.  Discriminatory  laws  affecting  the  most  vital  in- 
terest of  the  colored  race  have  been  enacted  and  gener- 
ally enforced  without  the  suggestion  of  a protest  from 
the  federal  authorities,  and  many  of  the  national  laws 
that  enforced  would  give  great  relief  to  the  oppressed 
are  apparently  “dead  letters,”  so  far  as  their  practical 
application  is  concerned. 

In  1885  there  were  184  people  lynched  in  this  coun- 
try, 106  white  and  78  colored.  Ten  years  later  mobs 
murdered  112  Negroes  and  56  whites;  in  1892,  100 
whites  and  155  blacks,  making  a total  of  255.  The  year 
following  exactly  200  were  lynched.  In  1905  two  were 
burned  at  the  stake.  In  1906  civilized  Atlanta,  Ga. 
murdered  28  intone  night. 

Less  than  one-third  of  these  lynchings,  nearly  all  of 
which  occurred  in  the  Southern  States,  were  for  the  al- 
leged crime  of  rape.  No  offense  at  all  had  been  com- 
mitted by  anyone  of  those  mobbed  in  Atlanta  in  1906. 

In  the  Atlanta  riot  no  attempt  was  made  by  any  of 
the  rioters  to  conceal  their  identity.  They  slew  every 
Negro  in  sight  openly  and  before  the  eyes  of  the  officers 
charged  with  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  against  dis- 
orderly conduct  and  murder,  yet  not  a single  individual 
of  the  mob  was  ever  punished.  The  governor  of  the 
State  took  no  action  to  apprehend  the  guilty  and  exe- 
cute the  laws  he  had  sworn  to  uphold  and  execute. 

At  Statesboyo,  Ga.,  in  1905,  the  boldness  of  the  mob 
was  only  exceeded  by  the  heinousness  of  the  crime  com- 
mitted. Two  negroes  being  tried  for  murder  under 


102 


Martha  Schofield. 


guard  of  a company  of  St’ate  militia  soldiers,  were  re- 
moved from  the  court  room  during  the  progress  of  the 
trial  and  burned  at  the  stake. 

Although  the  sheriff  of  the  county  and  every  officer 
of  the  law  in  that  section  knew  personally  numbers  of 
the  mob  no  prosecution  was  ever  attempted  by  them. 

During  the  winter  of  1916  five  Negro  prisoners  were 
taken  from  the  county  jail  at  Sylvester,  Ga.  and  hanged 
to  the  same  tree.  Later  the  criminal  who  committed 
the  crime  for  which  the  five  were  lynched  was  also  sum- 
marily put  to  death. 

Six  lives  of  Negroes,  five  of  whom  were  in  no  wise 
connected  with  the  crime  for  which  vengeance  was 
wreaked,  in  retaliation  for  the  life  of  one  white  man ! 

The  case  has  too  many  parallels  for  recitation  here. 

In  none  of  the  open,  undisguised  atrocious  crimes 
against  the  blacks  is  prosecution  even  remotely  prob- 
able. 

With  like  impunity  are  almost  all  the  laws  respecting 
the  welfare  of  the  Negro  violated  throughout  the  South- 
ern States.  Especially  notable  are  the  violations  of  the 
act  to  make  effective  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  adopted  by  Congress 
May  31,  1870. 

This  act  declares,  that  all  citizens  who  are  or  shall 
become  qualified  by  law  to  vote  at  any  election  shall 
not  be  denied  the  right  to  vote  at  all  elections,  on  ac- 
count of  race,  color  or  previous  condition  of  servitude, 
by  any  constitution,  law,  custom,  usage  or  regulation 
any  State  or  territory  may  make. 

Various  subterfuges  in  the  guise  of  law  are  resorted 
to  in  the  effort  to  disqualify  the  Negroes,  but  as  the  race 
is  becoming  able  to  qualify  rapidly  discrimination  in 
the  application  of  the  registration  laws  are  openly  ad- 
mitted by  the  authorities. 

All  the  laws  for  qualification  of  voters  contemplate 
the  qualification  of  a sufficient  majority  of  the  whites 
as  to  make  the  Negro  a nullity  in  the  elections,  and  this 
even  in  those  communities  where  the  Negroes  out-num- 


Lynching  of  Negroes. 


103 


ber  in  population  and  wealth  the  whites  by  large  major- 
ities. 

There  are  tax  tests,  property  tests,  educational  tests, 
grand-father  clauses  and  understanding  and  character 
clauses.  Of  course  under  the  educational  tests  such 
requirements  as  a constitutional  lawyer  might  not  be 
able  to  meet  could' be  made  with  the  same  facility  that 
requirements  which  a fifteen  year  old  boy  could  meet  are 
made.  The  former  requirements  are  for  the  educated 
and  ignorant  Negroes  alike,  while  the  latter,  if  occasion 
demands  it,  are  for  the  whites  of  all  degrees  of  intelli- 
gence. The  intention  of  all  the  laws  regulating  the  reg- 
istration of  voters  is  to  disqualify  as  many  Negroes  as 
possible.  No  attempt  is  made  to  conceal  the  true  in- 
tent of  the  laws  by  their  authors  or  by  those  charged 
with  the  duty  of  their  application. 

There  are  members  of  the  United  States  Senate  ow- 
ing their  elevation  to  the  disfranchisement  laws  of  the 
Southern  States  who  will  not  only  acknowledge  that 
their  States  are  nullifying  some  of  the  acts  of  Congress 
but  boast  that  they  have  done  so  and  defy  the  executive 
department  of  the  government  to  interfere. 

Miss  Schofield  was  greatly  affected  by  the  tendency  of 
the  government  to  ignore  its  solemn  duty  respecting  the 
enforcement  of  many  of  the  acts  intended  to  degrade 
and  humiliate  the  Negro  race,  because  she  said  it  could 
mean  only  the  degradation  and  humiliation  of  all  man- 
kind. Vanderbilt  and  Rockefeller  in  their  palaces  of 
gold,  she  maintained,  had  no  more  right  to  protection 
than  the  humblest  Negro  in  his  little  log  hut.  Human- 
ity with  her  was  a sacred  thingf  and  she  believed  in  pro- 
tecting it.  She  looked  to  the  exercise  of  the  franchise 
as  the  only  means  of  securing  this  protection,  and  when 
she  saw  the  right  to  it  being  stolen  openly  and  the  theft 
acknowledged  and  the  court  defied  to  do  its  worst  by  the 
guilty  themselves,  no  wonder  her  confidence  of  the  man- 
hood in  men  was  seriously  shocked. 

But  she  never  ceased  to  hope  nor  ever  lost  an  oppor- 
tunity to  fight  for  the  rights  which  she  demanded  of  the 


104 


Martha  Schofield. 


government  for  all  men.  One  of  the  proposals  to  mini- 
mize the  number  of  lyncliings,  original  with  her,  is  now 
a statute  of  some  of  the  States.  It  makes  the  county  in 
which  the  lynching  of  a person  occurs  liable  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  deceased  family  for  his  or  her  loss,  and  re- 
covery may  be  had  by  action  in  the  courts.  Another 
important  measure  advocated  strenuously  by  her  was 
the  reduction  in  the  representatives  in  Congress  from 
those  States  limiting  the  suffrage  of  its  citizens. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


National  Segregation  of  Negro. 

Miss  Schofield  was  most  solicitous  concerning  the  fu- 
ture difficulties  which  the  Negro  problem  would  occa- 
sion when  the  colored  race  reaches  that  stage  of  develop- 
ment when  requests  as  are  made  at  the  present  time  for 
certain  rights  become  demands  which  can  not  be  ignored 
or  disposed  of  by  trickery  and  hypocritical  legislation. 
As  she  was  in  advance  of  her  time  about  thirty  years 
in  valuing  the  importance  of  industrial  training  for*  the 
Negro,  and  as  early  as  1890  was  teaching  and  practic- 
ing the  principles  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  as  they 
are  now  in  force  by  the  United  States  government  at 
the  Army  and  Navy  stations,  in  the  camps  and  homes 
of  its  employees  wherever  governmental  authority  ex- 
tends, so  she  saw  that  the  Negro  will  not  always  be  sat- 
isfied with  whatever  his  white  friends  chose  to  give  him. 
She  felt  and  believed  that  enlightenment,  through  edu- 
cation, the  day  would  come  when  the  Negro  would  be 
controlled  only  by  according  to  him  every  right  to 
which  he  may  be  entitled,  and  had  great  confidence  that 
education  also  would  so  improve  the  intelligence  and 
morals  of  the  white  people  that  they  would  have  too 
much  respect  for  their  own  manhood  to  prostitute  it  by 
declining  to  grant  absolute  justice  to  the  race. 

Upon  the  enlightenment  of  both  races  she  depended 
absolutely  for  the  fulfillment  of  that  divine  declaration 
of  1776,  which  declared  that  all  men  are  created  free 
and  equal.  She  relied  upon  it  wholly  for  making  the 
war  between  the  States  worth  its  cost  in  blood  and 
treasury;  and  considered  that  her  work  would  prove  in 
vain  if  it  did  not  prepare  the  Negro  for  the  highest  re- 
sponsibilities of  life  .and  create  within  him  an  uncon- 
querable desire  to  assume  them. 

She  maintained  that  man’s  highest  development  could 
be  achieved  only  by  holding  out  to  him  rewards  com- 
mensurate with  the  industry  necessary  for  his  develop- 
ment. This  principle  in  political  economy  she  asserted, 


106 


Martha  SchOfield. 


was  responsible  for  the  antagonism  of  plutocracy  to  the 
education  of  the  masses. 

As  her  work,  to  which  she  was  called  by  God  as  she 
sincerely  believed  and  as  the  author  whom  she  reared 
from  a little  child  and  educated  as  sincerely  believes, 
was  among  the  latter,  plutocracy  was,  of  course,  the 
most  frightful  monster  to  be  encountered  and  overcome. 
But  overcome  it  must  be  at  all  hazards  in  the  philoso- 
phy of  Martha  Schofield,  and  education  instead  of  vio- 
lence she  taught  was  the  weapon  for  that  purpose. 

The  doctrine  that  by  imparting  to  the  colored  man  the 
knowledge  which  the  white  man  lias  gained  by  laborious 
processes  and  the  painful  travail  of  centuries  would  stir 
ambitions,  passions  and  new  emotions  in  the  colored 
race  which  would  cause  the  Negro  to  refuse  to  submit  to 
the  domination  of  the  white  race  was  preached  by  her, 
and  she  dreamed  dreams  and  formed  plans  for  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  that  it  is  expected  will  arise  in  the 
final  struggle  of  the  Negro  for  complete  and  absolute 
justice  under  the  flag  of  the  republic.  It  was  her  most 
earnest  desire  that  the  two  races  occupy,  if  possible,  one 
common  country  as  they  are  now  doing  but  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness  and  the  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth,  which  means  an  equal  division 
with  the  Negroes  of  everything  produced  for  the  com- 
mon good  through  the  united  strength  and  action  of  the 
masses.  It  also  demands  the  same  freedom  of  action 
for  the  Negroes  in  the  exercise  of  every  function  of  a 
citizen  that  is  allowed  the  whites  and  contemplates  their 
assimilation  in  the  political  life  of  the  nation  to  the  ex- 
tent of  their  being  eligible  to  the  highest  office  of  trust 
without  regard  to  any  qualification  other  than  that  of 
all  citizens.  Of  course,  it  is  worse  than  useless  to  say 
that  the  demand  carries  with  it  the  observance  of  every 
principle  of  equality  before  the  law  without  discrimina- 
tion on  account  of  race  or  color.  The  reservation  of 
the  right  to  impose  restrictions  on  account  of  race  in 
the  application  of  the  laws,  customs  and  usages  enacted 
to  regulate  the  control  of  all  would  mean  the  surrender 


National  Segregation  of  Negro. 


107 


of  the  basis  upon  which  rests  the  fundamental  guaran- 
tee of  certain  rights  without  which  no  government  could 
or  should  be  acceptable  to  men  of  any  manhood  or  cour- 
age. 

Failing  in  the  effort  to  live  together  on  terms  of 
reasonable  compatibility,  such  as  would  conduce  to  the 
betterment  of  each  race  in  all  intellectual,  moral  and 
political  aspirations,  Miss  Schofield  advocated  for  the 
colored  people  segregation  in  a state  or  territory  of  its 
own,  in  which  only  people  of  color  or  those  as  now  de- 
fined by  national  authority  as  Negroes,  might  become 
citizens. 

This  plan  is  made  practicable,  she  thought  by  the 
right  of  Eminent  Domain  which  the  government  retains 
to  itself  in  the  final  acquisition  and  possession  of  terri- 
tory through  the  means  of  condemnatory  proceedings 
which  certain  contingencies  might  make  imperative  in 
the  interest  of  the  public  weal. 

Under  authority  of  Congress  the  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior might  acquire  by  purchase  through  peaceable 
transfer,  if  possible,  or  if  necessary  through  condemna- 
tion proceedings  a territory  of  sufficient  area  to  settle 
the  entire  colored  race  for  all  time  and  place  it  under  a 
territorial  form  of  government  until  such  time  as  state- 
hood might  be  considered  more  feasible.  In  this  terri- 
tory only  could  a Negro  become  a sovereign  citizen  with 
the  rights  of  a citizen  which  now  belong  to  any  person 
residing  in  any  of  the  States  of  thb  Union  and  comply- 
ing with  the  requirements  regulating  citizenship.  White 
men  who  remained  in  the  territory  could  under  no  cir- 
cumstances become  a sovereign  citizen.  Only  the  Ne- 
groes should  be  allowed  to  vote  or  hold  office.  They 
^should  be  allowed  all  the  benefits  and  privileges  that 
citizens  of  a constitutional  state  now  enjoy,  being  rep- 
resented in  Congress  on  the  same  basis  that  any  State 
is  now  represented. 

No  person,  either  white  or  colored,  should  be  forced 
to  move  in  or  out  of  Negroland,  except  through  deport- 
ation for  offenses  such  as  are  now  punished  by  exile. 


108 


Martha  Schofield. 


This  would  leave  it  optional  with  the  Negro  to  live 
wherever  he  wished  and  still  be  under  the  protection 
of  the  United  States  flag  and  give  the  whites  of  the 
country  a similar  choice.  If  the  Negro  choose  to  re- 
main in  the  States  of  the  white  man  he  would  be  at  lib- 
erty to  do  so,  but  under  no  circumstances  could  he  be  al- 
lowed to  perform  the  duties  of  a sovereign.  The  white 
men  iu  Negroland  would  not  be  allowed  to  vote  in  that 
State  on  the  same  principle  that  a Georgian  is  not  qual- 
ified to  vote  in  Oregon ; and  a Negro  living  in  South 
Carolina  would  not  be  allowed  to  vote  in  that  State  on 
the  same  principle  that  a white  man  is  disqualified  from 
voting  at  an  election  in  Negroland. 

It  might  be  argued  against  this  plan  for  the  final  set- 
tlement of  the  Race  Question  that  it  is  not  only  revolu- 
tionary but  confiscatory  in  that  it  seeks  to  deprive  the 
white  citizens  of  the  territory  to  be  created  into  a Ne- 
groland, of  their  property  without  their  consent.  In 
answer  to  this,  reply  should  be  made  that  it  contains  no 
more  elements  of  a confiscatory  nature  that  the  common 
every-day  application  of  the  laws  now  in  force  for  the 
condemnation  of  property  in  the  construction  of  rail- 
ways and  the  opening"  up  of  public  highways. 

That  the  public  demands  are  sufficient  to  justify  the 
extension  of  this  law,  even  if  it  is  undemocratic,  to  in- 
clude the  purchase  of  a wide  area  of  territory  is  seen 
in  the  continued  persecution  of  the  Negr^  on  account 
of  his  color,  and  the  growing  resentment  of  the  race  at 
the  open  discrimination  practiced  by  the  whites  of  all 
sections.  It  is  more  likely  that  the  causes  for  the  fric- 
tion between  the  races  will  multiply  rather  than  de- 
crease as  each  becomes  wiser,  unless  it  were  possible  to 
make  angels  of  men  on  earth  as  well  as  in  Heaven. 

The  whites  of  the  South  by  a large  and  increasing 
majority  make  no  pretense  at  the  determination  of  that 
race  to  keep  the  Negro  down  politically,  at  least;  they 
depend  upon  their  ability  to  do  this  as  the  only  means 
of  continuing  themselves  in  power.  When  the  Negro 
demands  a share  in  the  affairs  of  the  government  as  he 


National  Segregation  of  Negro. 


109 


inevitably  will  and  most  assuredly  should  do,  then  will 
come  concrete  examples  which  will  not  only  justify  the 
separation  of  the  two  peoples  through  some  plan  of  seg- 
regation, but  make  their  separation  imperative. 

The  climax  of  the  antagonism,  which  may  be  dissi- 
pated by  separating  the  two  peoples,  will  be  reached 
when  the  Negro  shall  not  only  demand  but  force  the 
constituted  authorities  to  grant  absolute  equality  in  the 
administration  of  justice;  when  he  shall  not  only  de- 
mand the  right  to  vote,  to  sit  on  juries  and  represent 
his  country  in  its  legislative  deliberations  and  actions 
but  shall  force  his  rights  in  these  premises. 

The  determination  of  the  white  people  now  is  to  dom- 
inate predominately,  and  in  all  human  probability  this 
determination  is  to  become  intensely  more  fixed,  even  at 
the  cost  of  their  lives,  their  fortunes  and  their  honor; 
while  the  Negroes  will  be  equally  determined,  after 
equal  fitness  with  the  white  man  for  the  performance  of 
the  duties  of  citizenship,  so  determined  that  no  power  on 
earth  or  Heaven  except  extermination  shall  deny  them 
certain  inalienable  rights  which  all  instruction  teaches 
them  are  cheap  at  any  sacrifice.  They  will  never  assimi- 
late Patrick  Henry’s  great  speech  until  they  are  ready 
to  act  it.  They  can  never  act  it  until  they  are  ready  to 
accept  death  rather  than  slavery.  Without  the  patri- 
otism and  love  of  liberty  inspiring  this  immortal  Vir- 
ginian they  can  never  develop  the  ideal  that  is  in  them. 

Who  would  smother  the  ideals  and  aspirations  of  any 
race  does  so  at  the  expense  of  their  immortal  souls. 
God  could  not  be  just  unless  He  protected  the  emotions 
of  human  beings  with  the  same  degree  of  efficiency  with 
which  He  protected  the  organs  within  them.  Protect- 
ing the  brain  is  a mass  of  bone  and  fiber ; in  front  and 
behind  the  heart  and  lungs,  are  breastworks  of  superior 
construction,  and  around  the  longings  and  aspirations 
of  the  human  heart  are  the  bulwarks  of  self-condemna- 
tion and  eternal  damnation  for  any  man  or  race  of  men 
who  desecrate  those  sacred  chambers  by  closing  the  op- 
portunities for  their  development. 


110 


Martha  Schofield. 


It  may  be  argued  that  if  this  psychological  law  is 
true  in  practice  the  necessity  for  segregation  exists  in 
the  imagination  only — that  the  Eace  Problem  will  solve 
itself  on  the  principle  of  self  preservation  and  self  inter- 
est if  let  alone  and  given  time.  The  trouble  with  this 
argument  is  that  it  fails  to  take  into  account  the  value 
of  the  most  effective  means  of  preserving  the  integrity 
of  both  races.  If  God  in  His  wisdom  contemplated  the 
commingling  of  races  never  before  in  physical  touch  it 
was  for  a temporary  period  only,  each  race,  in  the  mean- 
time, being  endowed  with  reason  sufficient  to  find  a com- 
mon solution  for  the  evils  which  the  Creator  knew  phy- 
sical contact  would  produce. 

That  solution  is  segregation.  It  offers  intact  all  the 
advantages  which  the  opportunities  of  life  among  a 
highly  civilized  race  create  without  the  demoralizing 
and  humiliating  influences  at  work  on  account  of  race 
prejudice.  It  frees  the  whites  and  Negroes  alike  and  en- 
larges the  opportunities  for  the  development  of  each 
race,  under  a Common  flag,  that  will  no  longer  be  under 
the  necessity  of  polluting  the  pure  air  of  Heaven  by 
withholding  its  protection  from  among  even  the  hum- 
blest of  its  citizens. 

We  often  hear  it  said  that  the  Negro  is  not  yet  ready 
for  self-government,  that  he  has  not  the  fltnss  yet  to  gov- 
ern under  a territorial  form  of  government;  but  less  in- 
telligent and  far  inferior  races  are  at  this  time  govern- 
ing themselves.  Were  the  Cubans  as  capable  of  self-gov- 
ernment as  the  Negroes  are  now  when  the  government  of 
Cuba  was  assumed  by  them?  Did  not  the  United 
States  Government  entrust  the  Indians  with  a measure 
of  self-government  when  the  Indian  territory  was  cre- 
ated and  this  race  was  settled  in  the  West?  There  is 
no  nation  south  of  the  United  States  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Brazil  whose  citizens  have  the  intelligence 
and  efficiency  of  the  Negroes  of  North  America  for  self- 
government.  Besides,  under  the  plan  for  segregation  a 
territorial  form  of  government  is  proposed  until  such 
time  as  statehood  is  more  desirable.  While  the  Negroes 


National  Segregation  of  Negro. 


Ill 


are  being  prepared  for  controlling  their  own  affairs  gov- 
ernment under  territorial  laws  would  make  life  safe  and 
insure  equal  rights  to  all.  At  least,  the  government  of 
the  territory,  it  is  safe  to  say,  would  not  be  worse  than 
the  government  obtained  in  the  Southern  States  today. 

But  the  Negro  race  is  entirely  capable  at  this  time  of 
managing  its  own  affairs,  supervised  by  a wise  and  just 
administration  at  Washington. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Efficiency  of  Negro. 

The  records  of  the  conduct  of  Negroes  in  office,  with 
the  exception  of  the  rascality  of  those  in  power  in  the 
South  during  the  Reconstruction  Period,  are ‘creditable 
indeed,  to  the  race  from  which  they  sprang.  Respon- 
sibility for  the  scandals  attaching  to  the  rule  of  the  race 
in  some  of  the  Southern  States  directly  after  the  war 
are  chargeable  not  to  the  Negro  but  to  the  corruption  of 
the  white  men  who  imposed  on  the  Negro  by  taking  ad- 
vantage of  his  ignorance  and  making  him  the  cat’s  paw 
with  which  they  attempted  to  extricate  themselves  from 
many  difficulties  without  the  stain  of  dishonor. 

The  first  Negroes  to  become  members  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  any  State  in  the  Union  were  Edward  G.  Walker 
and  Charles  L.  Mitchell  of  Massachusetts  in  1866.  The 
records  show  they  discharged  their  duties  with  intelli- 
gence and  honor. 

The  first  holding  a position  under  appointment  by  the 
government  was  Ebenezer  Don  Carlos  Bassett  of  Phila- 
delphia who  was  appointed  minister  resident  and  consul 
general  to  the  government  of  Hayti  in  1869. 

He  was  an  educated  Negro  of  great  ability  and  was 
engaged  in  teaching  for  many  years.  The  ‘‘Hand  Book 
of  Hayti,”  of  which  he  was  the  author,  has  been  trans- 
lated into  many  languages. 

He  was  a member  of  the  American  Geographical  So- 
ciety and  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society. 

The  number  of  colored  officers,  clerks  and  other  em- 
ployees in  the  service  of  the  United  States  Government 
at  the  present  time  is  22,440  with  salaries  aggregating 
an  annual  income  of  $12,456,760.00. 

The  qualification  of  the  large  majority  of  these  em- 
ployees was  tested  under  civil  service  rules  and  so  it  is 
seen  this  large  number  got  into  the  service  through 
merit  alone. 

Out  of  a population  of  12,000,000  people,  with  a force 
of  20,000  trained  in  the  government  of  the  country  it  is 


Efficiency  of  Negro. 


113 


idle  to  assume  a sufficient  number  for  the  proper  admin- 
istration of  the  laws  of  the  territory  could  not  be  se- 
cured. 

In  the  matter  of  military  genius  and  personal  bravery 
as  well  as  in  preparation  for  statesmanship  by  reason 
of  education  and  patriotism  the  records  show  the  Negro 
to  be  well  equipped. 

There  are  eleven  colored  officers  in  the  regular  army 
of  the  United  States  at  the  present  time.  Three  Negroes 
have  been  graduated  from  West  Point. 

At  the  order  of  the  government  for  service  in  Mexico, 
the  first  to  go  to  the  front  in  search  of  Villa  and  his 
bandits  was  the  Tenth  cavalry  composed  of  Negroes 
which  has  distinguished  itself  for  service  in  this  puni- 
tive expedition  as  it  distinguished  itself  at  the  battle  of 
Las  Guasimas  in  Cuba  when  it  came  to  the  rescue  of 
Colonel  Roosevelt  and  his  Rough  Riders. 

The  first  to  go  to  the  front  in  the  Spanish-American 
War,  in  1898,  were  the  four  NEGRO  regiments,  the 
Tenth  Cavalry,  the  Twenty-fifth  Infantry,  which  took 
a prominent  part  in  the  battle  of  El  Caney,  the  Ninth 
Cavalry,  which  with  the  Twenty-fourth  Infantry  and 
the  Tenth  Cavalry,  rendered  heroic  service  in  the  battle 
of  San  Juan  Hill.  The  Ninth  and  Tenth  Cavalry  have 
the  reputation  of  being  the  best  Indian  fighters  in  the 
United  States  Army. 

It  does  not  appear  from  the  records  of  the  Military 
Secretary  at  Washington  that  the  Negro  is  lacking  in 
any  essential  quality  for  the  performance  of  the  duty 
of  a soldier. 

The  people  of  that  section  of  the  country  where  most 
of  the  argument  against  his  ability  as  a soldier  origi- 
nates were  quite  willing  enough  to  enlist  him  in  the  Con- 
federate States  Army,  or  that  portion  of  the  race  .which 
had  been  made  free  previous  to  the  Emancipation  Pro- 
clamation. 

In  1864  the  Confederate  Congress,  at  Richmond, 
passed  an  act  making  all  male  Negroes,  with  certain  ex- 
ceptions, between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  fifty  liable 


114 


Martha  Schofield. 


for  the  performance  of  such  duties  in  the  Confederate 
Army,  in  the  Avay  of  work  in  connection  with  the  mili- 
tary defenses  as  the  Secretary  of  War  might  prescribe, 
and  provided  for  them  in  rations,  clothing  and  compen- 
sation. Provision  was  also  made  at  the  same  time  for 
the  employment  of  20,000  Negro  slaves  for  similar  duty 
by  the  Secretary  of  War. 

In  November,  1861,  at  a review  of  28,000  Confederate  m 
troops  in  New  Orleans,  one  of  the  most  prominent  regi- 
ments was  colored,  consisting  of  1,400  free  Negroes. 
The  members  of  the  companies  comprising  this  regiment 
according  to  The  Picayune  of  that  city,  supplied  them- 
selves with  arms  without  aid  from  the  Confederate 
Government. 

The  worst  that  can  be  said  against  this  regiment  is 
that  it  existed  at  all  for  the  defense  of  a government 
that  sought  to  continue  its  members  in  perpetual  slav- 
ery. 

Nearly  200,000  Negro  soldiers  were  employed  in  the 
United  States  Army  in  the  Civil  War.  These  formed 
161  regiments  of  which  141  were  infantry  or  cavalry, 
12  heavy  artillery  and  1 light  artillery. 

The  Negro  troops  fought  gloriously  in  many  of  the 
bloodiest  battles  of  the  war.  Among  the  engagements 
in  which  they  were  particularly  distinguished  for  brav- 
ery and  heroism  were  the  battles  of  Milliken’s  Bend  on 
the  Mississippi  River  near  Vicksburg,  in  July  1863,  the 
assault  on  Port  Hudson  near  Baton  Rouge,  La.,  in  1863, 
atvFort  Wagner,  a Charleston,  S.  C.,  defence,  in  1863, 
and  at  all  the  assaults  on  Petersburg,  Va.,  in  1864  as 
well  as  in  the  battle  of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  fought  in  De- 
cember 1864. 

In  the  Revolutionary  War  as  well  as  in  the  War  of 
1812,  Negroes  were  enlisted  and  served  with  such  dis- 
tinction in  the  latter  as  to  inspire  the  following  address 
by  General  Andrew  Jackson,  afterwards  President  of 
the  United  States. 

“To  the  men  of  color — Soldiers : I knew  before  your 

‘ enlistment  that  you  could  endure  the  hardships  of  hun- 


Efficiency  of  Negro. 


115 


ger  and  thirst  and  brave  the  dangers  of  war.  I knew 
that  you  loved  the  land  of  your  nativity,  and  that,  like 
ourselves  you  had  to  defend  all  that  is  most  dear  to 
man.  But  you  have  surpassed  my  hopes.  I have  found 
in  you,  united  to  these  qualities,  that  noble  enthusiasm 
which  impels  to  great  deeds. 

“Soldiers!  The  President  of  the  United  States  shall 
be  informed  of  your  conduct  on  the  present  occasion; 
and  the  voices  of  the  Representatives  of  the  American 
nation  shall  applaud  your  valor  as  your  General  now 
praises  your  ardor.” 

It  was  the  distinguished  service  of  two  battalions  of 
500  Negroes  that  elicited  this  eulogy  from  the  Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  the  forces  engaged  in  the  second  war 
with  England. 

Commodore  Perry  used  equally  forcible  language  in 
his  praise  of  the  bravery  and  conduct  of  the  Negroes 
under  his  command  at  the  battle  of  Lake  Erie.  He  said 
that  Negro  soldiers  seemed  to  be  absolutely  insensible 
to  danger. 

There  were  about  3,000  Negroes  employed  in  the 
Revolutionary  War  by  General  Washington.  Am  equal 
or  greater  number  were  employed  by  the  British. 

Some  of  the  most  heroic  deeds  of  the-  war  for  Inde- 
pendence were  performed  by  the  men  of  color.  Major 
Pitcairn,  in  charge  of  the  British  forces  at  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill,  was  killed  by  a Negro  named  Peter  Sa- 
lem. A petition  was  drawn  by  some  of  the  principal 
officers  of  the  American  Army  to  secure  recognition  by 
the  Massachusetts  Colony  for  Solomon  Poor,  a Negro, 
for  distinguished  service  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 
Crispus  Attucks,  a Negro,  was  the  first  American  to  be- 
come a martyr  in  the  Boston  massacre. 

The  Black  Legion  of  Count  D’  Estaing  saved  the  de- 
feated American  and  French  Army  from  complete  anni- 
hilation at  the  seige  of  Savannah  on  October  9,  1779,  by 
covering  the  retreat  and  repulsing  the  charge  of  the 
British. 

In  every  war  fought  on  American  soil,  the  Negroes 


116 


Martha  Schofield. 


f 

whenever  allowed  to  participate,  have  displayed  a cour- 
age and  heroism  that  is  not  only  a credit  to  the  race 
but  a credit  to  mankind. 

In  poetry  and  literature,  as  well  as  war,  the  Negro 
has  arisen  to  distinction.  Indeed,  the  first  woman, 
either  white  or  black,  to  attain  to  literary  distinction 
in  this  country  was  a Negro,  a slave  at  that. 

She  was  Phyllis  Wheatly  of  Boston,  who  wrote  po- 
ems on  various  subjects,  religious  and  moral,  of  high 
literary  value.  One  of  the  poems  was  addressed  to  Gen- 
eral Washington  and  was  appreciated  by  him  as  refer- 
ence to  it  by  him  was  made  in  a letter  to  Joseph  Reed 
under  date  of  February  10,  1776.  Through  the  endorse- 
ment of  several  men  distinguished  in  literature  her 
poems  were  collected  and  published  in  London  under 
the  title,  “Poems  of  Various  Subjects,  Religious  and 
Moral,  by  Phyllis  Wheatly,  a Negro  Servant  to  Mr. 
John  Wheatly  of  Boston,  in  New  England.” 

Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar,  born  in  1872,  was  a noted  Ne- 
gro poet. 

William  Stanley  Braithwaite,  author  of  “The  Book 
of  Georgian  Verse”  and  the  reviewer  of  poetry  appear- 
ing in  the  standard  magazines  is  classed  among  the  gen- 
uises  of  American  verse  writers. 

“A  Little  Dreaming”  is  a volume  by  Fenton  Johnson 
of  Chicago  that  has  been  favorably  commented  on  in 
this  country  and  Europe. 

The  most  famous  of  the  Negro  Shakesperian  scholars 
was  Ira  Aldridge  of  Bel  Air  Maryland.  He  is  said  to 
have  had  no  equal  in  the  personification  of  Othello,  the 
Moor.  He  was  awarded  the  Gold  Medal  of  the  First 
Class  for  “Art  and  Science”  by  the  King  of  Prussia,  a 
distinction  that  had  never  before  been  awarded  to  any 
but  Humbolt,  Spentini,  the  composer  and  Liszt,  the  mu- 
sician. His  title  in  England  was  that  of  “Royal  Saxe 
Ernest  House  Order,”  a title  of  higher  degree  than  that 
of  “Sir”  so  much  coveted  in  Britain.  He  was  a member 
of  the  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  of  St.  Petersburg. 

Bert  Williams,  another  Negro  actor,  bears  the  dis- 


Efficiency  of  Negro. 


117 


tinction  of  being  the  “Greatest  Comedian  on  the  Amer- 
ican Stage.” 

The  inventive  genius  of  the  Negro  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
records  of  the  patent  office  at  Washington.  These  show 
the  application  of  a wide  range  of  inventive  talent,  in- 
cluding agricultural  implements,  in  wood  and  metal 
working  machines,  in  land  conveyances  on  road  and 
steel  rail  tracks,  in  ocean  going  vessels,  in  chemistry 
and  chemical  compounds,  in  electricity  in  all  its  wide 
range  of  uses,  in  aereonautics,  in  new  designs  of  house 
furniture  and  bric-a-brac,  in  mechanical  toys  and 
amusement  devices. 

It  is  said  that  a Negro  really  invented  the  cotton  gin, 
or  gave  to  Ely  Whitney,  who  was  the  patentee  of  it, 
the  suggestions  which  aided  in  the  completion  of  this 
invention.  As  early  as  1834  a Negro,  Henry  Blair,  of 
Maryland,  secured  a patent  on  a corn  harvester. 

Soon  after  the  Dred  Scott  Decision  in  1857  the  Pat- 
ent Offce  rendered  a decision  that  a Negro  could  not 
take  out  a patent  on  an  invention,  but  since  1862,  when 
the  decision  was  rescinded,  no  restrictions  have  been 
placed  on  the  use  of  the  office  by  Negroes  and  a great 
number  of  useful  inventions  have  been  patented  by  them. 

Robert  Pelham,  of  Detroit,  an  employee  in  the  Census 
Bureau,  has  devised  a machine  that  tabulates  the  sta- 
tistics from  the  manufacturer’s  schedules  in  a way  that 
displaces  a dozen  men  in  a given  quantity  of  work,  do- 
ing the  work  economically,  speedily  and  with  faultless 
precision.  The  returns  in  royalties  from  his  invention, 
which  is  patented,  greatly  exceeds  the  income  Mr.  Pel- 
ham receives  from  the  Government  salary  paid  him  for 
services  in  the  office  of  the  Census  Bureau. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  nearly  50,000  Negro 
business  enterprises  of  various  kinds,  some  requiring  a 
knowledge  of  banking,  insurance,  manufacturing,  un- 
dertaking and  hospital  training. 

The  combined  business  of  these  enterprises  total  over 
one  billion  dollars  annually. 


118 


Martha  Schofield. 


There  are  about  66  banks  in  all  with  a capital  and 
surplus  of  over  $2,000,000.00. 

Reference  elsewhere  made  in  this  book  to  the  progress 
of  the  Negro  in  farming  operations  indicates  that  he  is 
advancing  more  rapidly  in  agriculture  than  any  of  the 
other  pursuits.  In  educational  and  church  work  it  is 
shown,  also,  that  he  is  well  prepared  to  take  care  of 
himself  should  the  separation  of  the  races  ever  become 
a reality.  The  church  denominational  statistics  show 
there  are  about  40,000  Negro  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  with  communicants  numbering  over  4,000,000. 
The  value  of  Negro  church  property  is  about  $60,000, 
000.00. 

From  $200,000.00  to  $250,000.00  is  spent  annually  on 
home  missions.  For  foreign  missions  the  race  spends 
from  $100,000.00  to  $150,000.00  annually. 

By  every  test  or  qualification  and  efficiency  the  Ne- 
gro, in  government,  in  the  science  of  war,  in  the  art  of 
agriculture,  in  manufacturing,  invention,  medicine,  law 
and  literature  is  well  prepared  to  assume  the  govern- 
ment of  his  race  in  a territory  of  his  own.  This  insures 
him  the  same  protection  from  the  persecution  and  in- 
justices of  the  stronger  race  that  enabled  the  latter  to 
succeed  so  famously  when  they,  too,  in  the  course  of 
human  events,  found  it  necessary  to  dissolve  the  politi- 
cal bonds  that  united  them  to  a dominant  authority  that 
gave  them  no  justice. 


INCIDENTS  IN  MISS  SCHOFIELD’S  LIFE. 


Martha  Schofield’s  conception  of  an  education  includ- 
ed a great  deal  more  than  the  mere  matter  of  acquiring 
a fund  of  knowledge.  She  taught  that  knowledge  with- 
out the  ability  to  use  it  was  worthless,  and  inspired 
every  one  coming  under  her  influence  with  the  necessity 
for  a means  of  practicing  what  they  were  taught.  This 
made  her  work  intensely  practical  and  enabled  her  stu- 
dents to  succeed  in  overcoming  difficulties  as  they  saw 
her  overcome  them.  The  operation  of  her  school,  in- 
cluding the  farm,  the  store  and  boarding  house  dormi- 
tories became  a part  of  the  curriculum  and  each  student 
was  provided  with  practical,  concrete  examples  of  every 
day  business  life  with  a solution  for  each  worked  out 
before  the  eyes  of  the  whole  school.  The  success  which 
has  and  is  attending  the  efforts  of  her  students  in  many 
lines  of  endeavor  is  one  of  the  best  arguments  we  have 
to  advance  for  the  extension  of  practical  instruction, 
especially  among  the  Negroes  who  have  evidenced  a sin- 
gular ability  in  assimilating  it  and  imparting  its  use- 
fulness afterwards. 

While  every  Schofield  scholar  received  a deep  im- 
pression of  the  power  which  knowledge  gives  no  want  of 
attention  was  directed  to  the  evil  which  invariably  at- 
tends the  wrong  use  of  it.  This  developed  a course  in 
moral  philosophy  which,  it  is  to  be  supposed,  is  responsi- 
ble for  the  high  average  maintained  by  the  graduates  of 
this  school  in  the  deportment  of  their  lives.  Not  one 
of  the  many  receiving  their  education  at  the  school  has 
ever  been  convicted  of  crime  or  sentenced  to  jail  or 
servitude  in  a penal  institution.  This  contradicts  and 
discredits  the  statement  often  heard  that  the  education 
of  the  Negro  has  been  attended  by  an  increase  of  crime 
among  the  members  of  the  race.  While  unsupported 
by  the  facts  with  regard  to  the  students  of  all  other  Ne- 
gro schools  the  statement  could  have  basis  only  in  those 
schools  and  colleges  where  the  relation  of  morals  to 


120 


Martha  Schofield. 


breeding  is  ignored  altogether  or  made  of  secondary  im- 
portance only.  Certain  it  is  that  Martha  Schofield  im- 
pressed each  one  of  her  students  with  a higher  regard 
for  truth  and  virtue  than  for  anything  else  in  this  world. 

Without  the  morality  to  live  and  act  honorably  edu- 
cation to  her  was  a curse,  and  she  had  the  faculty  of 
making  her  students  a co-partner  with  her  in  sharing 
her  convictions  along  lines  of  right  conduct  and  moral 
grandeur  as  well  as  excelling  in  efficiency  in  all  the  arts 
taught. 

Martha  Schofield  was  impelled  by  a power  in  ber 
heart  which  inspired  sympathy  to  give  the  very  best  of 
her  life  in  help  of  the  Negro.  So  she  was  very  partic- 
ular in  her  work  that  what  she  imparted  really  should 
inspire  her  diciples  to  think  right  and  live  right.  This 
enforced  the  necessity  for  a discipline  that  may  be  con- 
sidered severe  by  some  but  many  are  there  today 
who  bless  her  from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  for  hold- 
ing them  strictly  to  account  in  their  work  that  in  the 
final  result  they  might  be  the  possessors  of  a future 
worthy  of  the  instruction  received  at  her  hands.  She 
never  enforced  iron-hand  discipline  without  the  glove  of 
charity  and  her  advice  always  sparkled  with  such  sin- 
cerity and  sympathy  as  to  make  it  palatible. 

Not  only  was  the  work  of  Miss  Schofield  opposed  by 
the  antagonism  of  race  prejudice,  but  opposed  by  a want 
of  a precedent.  There  were  few  Negroes  of  education 
to  refer  to  as  examples  of  what  education  may  be  ex- 
pected to  do  for  one  with  the  intelligence  and  industry 
necessary  to  acquire  it.  Only  a few  years  before  Miss 
Schofield  began  her  work  the  instruction  of  Negroes  was 
made  unlawful  by  some  of  the  States  in  the  South  and 
as  a result  the  greatest  ignorance  prevailed  among 
them.  Not  five  per  cept,  could  either  read  or  write  and 
quite  a number  possessed  no  Christian  name  at  all. 
They  lived  principally  in  one  room  cabins,  whole  fami- 
lies of  them,  and  subsisted  on  the  coarsest  and  most  un- 
wholesome food  imaginable.  There  was  no  respect  any- 
where for  sanitary  science  lawTs  and  all  this  had  the 


Incidents  in  Miss  Schofield's  Life. 


121 


effect  to  greatly  handicap  Miss  Schofield  at  the  begin- 
ning of  her  effort. 

One  of  the  rules  of  her  school  which  she  enforced 
early  in  her  career  was  that  no  child  could  enter  school 
who  did  not  have  a name.  As  all  were  eager  to  learn 
and  made  tremendous  sacrifices  that  their  children 
might  do  so  this  rule  produced  a mild  sensation  among 
some  of  the  older  people  who  had  not  the  intuition  to 
go  about  the  work  of  obtaining  a name  for  their  off 
spring.  But  the  ruling  finally  served  to  obtain  names 
for  all,  and  these  in  time  became  legal,  some  of  them 
appearing  just  as  Martha  Schofield  gave  them  on  the  tax 
books  to  this  very  day. 

Perhaps  the  origin  of  the  name  Rahab  Obedience,  for 
many  years  an  employe  in  Miss  Schofield’s  room,  was 
one  among  the  most  unique.  Accompanied  by  her  child, 
who  had  been  sent  home  the  day  before  for  want  of  a 
name,  Rahab  called  early  one  morning  on  Miss  Scho- 
field and  expressed  great  distress  over  the  possibility 
of  her  not  being  able  to  comply  with  the  entrance  reg- 
ulations and  keep  her  little  boy  in  school. 

“Missus,”  spoke  Rahab,  “Banjo  be’n  tellin’  me  dat  yo’ 
sais  he  mus’  hab  some  trimmins’  ’fore  he  kin  com’  to 
yo’  sc’ool  an’  clear  befo’  dee  Lawd,  Missus,  he  aint  got 
non’  ’side  frum  Banjo’  and  hee  jist  caint  git  non.’  Dat 
chile  nebber  aint  had  any  daddy,  Missus!” 

“Every  child  that  enters  this  school”  said  Miss  Scho- 
field, “must  have  a name  or  be  given  one,  else  we  can 
not  teach  him.  Perhaps,  we  may  give  your  son  a name. 

“What  is  your  name?  All  children  without  a father 
bear  their  mother’s  name.” 

“Mer  name,  Missus?”  queried  Rahab  in  sui'prise.  “I 
be’n  tinkink  yo’  no’  mer  name  Ion’  time.” 

“Yes,  I know;  but  what  is  your  Christian  name — the 
other  part  of  your  name?  Rahab  who?” 

“O,  yas’am,  I ’noes  w’at  yo’  means  now,  but  dats  all 
de  name  I habs — jest  Rahab,”  said  the  woman  as  she 
looked  hopefully  at  Miss  Schofield  for  some  means  by 


122 


Martha  Schofield. 


which  a name  could  be  found  for  her  son  and  he  be  al- 
lowed to  remain  in  school. 

“Well,  can’t  you  suggest  some  name  for  your  son?” 
asked  Miss  Schofield.  “What  name  would  you  like  for 
him  to  be  known  by?” 

“We’l  Missus,”  said  Eahab,  “mer  old  marster  alius 
tol’  us  dat  Obedience  wus  der  bes  trate  in  de  karecter 
of  a cullud  pusson  an’  so  I bleeves  I’d  jest  lak  to  hab 
mer  boi  call’d  Banjo  Obedience.” 

“Very  well,”  replied  Miss  Schofield,  “hereafter  he 
shall  be  known  as  Banjo  Obedience  and  we  shall  know 
you  as  Eahab  Obedience.” 

“Dat’s  jest  alritee  ef  Banjo  kin  cum  ter  sc’ool  wid  dat 
name.  Don’t  care  w’at  yo’  cal’  ’em  nor  how  much  yo’ 
beats  ’em  jest  so  yo  larns  em  sometings,  som’  gud  man- 
’ers  lak  he  ole  marster  had.” 

In  a very  few  days  after  this  unusual  interview  Eahab 
herself  was  given  a position  in  the  Schofield  household 
where  she  was  employed  for  many  years. 

Among  all  the  mourners  at  the  funeral  none  there 
were  more  deeply  affected  by  the  passing  of  Miss  Scho- 
field than  the  servants  of  her  household. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  traits  of  Miss  Schofield’s 
character  is  to  be  seen  in  her  treatment  of  the  Negro 
servants  in  her  employ.  The  excellent  service  which 
“Aunt  Amy”  rendered  to  her  gave  her  a high  apprecia- 
tion of  the  Negro  for  domestic  duties,  and  inspired  the 
sentiment  now  common  over  the  country  that  the  South- 
ern white  people  do  not  appreciate  the  value  of  Negro 
servants  because  they  have  never  had  the  dissatisfaction 
attending  the  employment  of  other  domestics  of  different 
nationality. 

“Aunt  Ann,”  another  employe  for  thirty-five  years, 
equally  distinguished  the  race  by  excelling  in  the  art  of 
domestic  service.  Eahab  Obedience,  Darius  Bauknight 
and  Charlotte,  all  so  well  pleased  Miss  Schofield  with 
the  quality  and  quantity  of  their  services  that  each  re- 
ceived recognition  in  her  Will. 

Martha  Schofield  was  not  only  admired  and  loved  by 


Incidents  in  Miss  Schofield^  Life. 


123 


all  her  students  and  servants — she  was  idolized  by  them. 
Wherever  she  went  in  the  South  or  North  she  always 
found  a number  to  do  her  honor,  and  honor  shown  her 
v by  the  humblest  and  lowest  of  the  Negro  race  was  to 
all  appearances  as  much  appreciated  as  that  shown  by 
the  great  poets  and  writers,  many  of  whom  knew  her 
and  delighted  in  showing  her  the  respect  which  one 
great  mind  has  for  another. 

Among  the  distinguished  people  who  expressed  a 
deep  appreciation  of  her  strength  of  character  and  firm- 
ness of  purpose  in  carrying  on  her  work  was  John  G. 
Whittier,  the  Quaker  Poet,  who  wrote  her  several  pleas- 
ing commendatory  letters,  and  dedicated  all  his  works 
to  the  spirit  which  inspired  her  to  carry  on  her  work 
in  the  face  of  difficulties  that  would  have  discouraged 
into  inactivity  anybody  but  Martha  Schofield.  Other 
notable  people  who  paid  tribute  to  Miss  Schofield  were 
Lucreta  Mott,  the  distinguished  reformer  and  Miss 
Francis  Willard. 

At  her  home  in  Aiken  she  was  highly  respected  for 
her  strength  of  character  in  holding  fast  to  her  convic- 
tions and  for  her  intelligence  and  absolute  honesty. 

The  following  resolutions  by  the  Woman’s  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  a white  organization  to  which  Miss 
Schofield  belonged,  were  passed  at  a recent  session : 

“Resolutions. 

“Aiken,  S.  0.,  April  17th,  1916. 

“Whereas,  God,  in  His  infinite  wisdom,  has  seen  fit  to 
take  from  us,  our  sister  and  earnest  co-worker,  Miss 
Martha  Schofield ; We,  the  members  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U., 
Aiken,  S.  0.,  do  hereby  offer  the  following  resolutions: 

“1st.  That  in  her  passing  away  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  has 
lost  one  of  its  earnest  workers. 

“2nd.  That  we  extend  to  her  neice  and  to  her  com- 
panion, Mrs.  Taylor,  our  deepest  sympathy. 

“3rd.  That  a page  in  our  Minute  Book  be  inscribed 
to  her  memory. 


124 


Martha  Schofield. 


“4th.  That  a copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  her 
neice,  to  Mrs.  Taylor  and  to  the  County  papers  for  pub- 
lication. 

Meta  Summerall, 
Hattie  P.  Hill, 

Tweetie  M.  Carter, 

Committee.” 

If  one  ever  questioned  whether  the  services  of  Miss 
Schofield  were  appreciated  by  the  colored  people  of  Aik- 
en all  doubts  must  have  been  removed  by  the  demon- 
stration of  Negroes  at  the  funeral  on  Monday,  Febru- 
ary 3,  and  again  on  the  same  day  as  the  casket  was 
borne  from  the  Schofield  home  to  the  railroad  station. 
Tlie  line  of  march  included  over  1,000  school  children 
and  citizens  and  the  mass  was  so  great  at  the  train  shed 
as  to  interfere  with  the  movement  of  all  traffic.  As  the 
train  moved  off  the  citizens'  joined  in  the  favorite  song 
of  the  lamented  lady  and  sang  so  sadly  and  feelingly  as 
to  bring  tears  to  the  eyes  of  all : “Steal  Away,  Steal 

Away  to  Jesus.” 

Among  hundreds  of  telegrams,  letters  and  personal 
messages  received  at  the  school  following  the  death  of 
Miss  Schofield,  the  latter  are  typical : 

“I  am  here  to  give  my  testimony  of  the  value  of  the 
life  of  Martha  Schofield  to  my  race.  She  was  one  of  the 
bravest,  kindest  women  I ever  knew.  It  is  true  that 
Martha  Schofield  was  a fightep.  She  dared  to  contend 
for  what  she  believed  was  right,  but  always  took  coun- 
sel, weighed  things  carefully,  and,  when  she  took  a 
stand 'that  she  believed  was  right,  believing  she  was 
right,  there  was  no  earthly  power  to  turn  her  from  her 
course.  Martha  Schofield  is  not  dead — she  lives  in  the 
memory  of  her  students  scattered  all  over  South  Caro- 
lina and  other  States.  She  will  live  in  the  memory  of 
their  children  and  their  children’s  children,  for  there 
are  few  colored  homes  in  which  her  name  and  deeds  are 
not  recounted  in  the  family  circle.” 

Lucy  Laney, 

Principal  Haines  Institute,  Augusta,  Ga. 


Incidents  in  Miss  Schofield’s  Life. 


125 


“In  tlie  death  of  Miss  Martha  Schofield  the  Negroes 
have  lost  a true  friend  of  long  standing,  and  the  cause 
of  the  great  social  uplift  here  in  the  South  has  lost  an 
earnest  and  effective  worker. 

“Miss  Schofield  was  my  personal  friend  and  adviser 
for  many  years.  I think  she  has  accomplished  a most 
unselfish  life  work  and  very  effective.” 

Walter  S.  Buchanan, 

President  Agricultural  & Mechanical  College, 

Normal,  Alabama. 

Miss  Schofield  did  a valuable,  a useful,  a noble  work 
for  my  race,  and  I am  glad  so  many  of  the  colored  peo- 
ple in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  have  joined  in  the 
general  chorus  of  sorrow  and  sympathy  in  consequence 
of  her  death.  A hundred  years  from  now,  when  the  his- 
tory of  the  South  shall  be  written  anew,  the  brightest 
page  in  the  story  will  be  that  on  which  shall  be  record- 
ed the  lives,  labor,  and  sacrifices  of  the  white  men  and 
women  from  the  North  who  came  into  the  South  direct- 
ly after  the  war  and  brought  the  torch  of  civilization 
to  a freed  race  and  taught  them  the  way  of  truth  and 
righteousness. 

Prof.  S.  X.  Floyd, 

Principal  Gwinnett  School, 

Augusta,  Ga. 

The  following  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted 
by  the  faculty  of  the  Schofield  school,  in  respect  to  the 
memory  of  Miss  Schofield  : 

“ Resolved , That  the  Schofield  School  most  sorrow- 
fully realizes  that  in  the  translation  of  the  spirit  of  this 
truly  great  woman,  it  has  sustained  an  irreparable  loss. 
In  the  departure  from  our  midst  of  this  illustrious  char- 
acter, we  solemnly  obligate  ourselves  to  ever  reserve 
prominent  places  in  our  memories  for  the  most  worthy 
example  set  before  us  by  the  founder  and  friend  of  the 
great  work.  The  greatest  monument  to  the  life  of  Miss 


126 


Martha  Schofield. 


Schofield  is  the  school  which  bears  her  name.  This 
most  splendid  plant,  now  in  the  flower  of  its  prosperity, 
marks  the  fruitful  result  of  the  untiring  zeal  and  the 
dauntless  courage  possessed,  and  the  patient  efforts  put 
forth  by  the  Founder  who  so  faithfully  labored  for  and 
among  the  freedmen  of  our  community.” 


V 


Date  Due 


Library  Bureau  Cat.  no.  1137 


1 


CALL  NUMBER 

Vol. 

j 

/ 

L 

Date  (for  periodical) 

975.709  S367E  15*853 


( 


